If fairies exist, you'd probably expect to find them in rural counties such as Herefordshire or Shropshire. You probably wouldn't expect to find them in the dense urban jungle of Europe's largest city.
Whilst chatting with relatives in the back garden of her home in Croydon, south London, Phyllis Bacon decided to casually snap a picture of her garden.
When looking at the photo later, Phyllis noticed what looks like a winged creature near some bushes on the right of the picture.
But, after dismissing the idea that it might be a moth, a butterfly or a beetle, Phyllis believes it may be a fairy.
However, it is highly likely that the unknown being IS just a flying insect and not a little winged person inhabiting her garden.
This photo is highly reminscent of the Cottingley Fairies, who supposedly made friends with two young girls, 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her cousin, 10-year-old Francis Griffiths, in the village of Cottingley, near Bradford in Yorkshire in 1917.
The two girls took amazing photographs of them playing with their fairy friends, who often appeared to be dancing in the photos. The photos made news across a war weary Britain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, took part in an investigation.
However, in 1981 the girls - by this time, of course, elderly women - admitted that the photos were fakes, although they insisted that they HAD seen real fairies.
Frances' daughter and granddaughter appeared on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in Belfast, aired on BBC One on January 4 2009, with all five original photographs and the camera given to the girls by Conan Doyle. The set was valued at £40,000 or more. When asked, both women agreed that they believed the fairies in the fifth photograph to be genuine.
Croydon Tinker Bell... are there fairies at the bottom of the garden?
By Rebecca English
08th September 2009
Daily Mail
Urban Croydon, south London, is the last place you'd expect to find fairies
It fluttered into her life and left a little bit of fairy dust.
But no matter how hard Phyllis Bacon scours her garden, she can find no trace of her silver-winged visitor. All she has is this picture.
And as she examines the photo of the tiny glowing creature darting around above her lawn, she finds herself believing in fairies.
Enlarge
Fairy odd: Phyllis Bacon took this picture of what appears to be a fairy while she was chatting to relatives
Fairies who frolic at the bottom of gardens in New Addington, near Croydon in South London.
Mrs Bacon, 55, said she was not even looking through the camera at the time she took the picture.
Enlarge
Close up: The mysterious 'fairy' caught on camera
Instead she simply clicked the button while holding it at arm's length out of the back door while chatting with relatives in her kitchen after dinner.
Astonished by what she saw when she glimpsed at the picture, she has spent months seeking a rational explanation.
But after scouring the internet for pictures of butterflies, moths and beetles that might match it, she has drawn a blank.
'I think it must be a fairy,' she said yesterday as she made the picture public for the first time.
'No one I've shown the photos to has come up with any plausible explanation as to what the figure is.' The photo reminds some of the Cottingley fairies, photographed in a West Yorkshire garden in 1917.
At the time, Elsie Wright, 16, and her ten-year-old cousin, Frances Griffiths, claimed to have captured images of themselves playing with tiny winged creatures.
Only many decades later did they admit that the photographs were faked and involved cut-out drawings of fairy figures that were fastened to foliage with hatpins.
Mrs Bacon insists her photograph, taken in 2007, involved no sleight of hand.
She said she had been reluctant to show it off widely for fear of being branded 'nutty'.
'I used to like fairy stories as a child, but I can't claim to have ever seen one before or since,' she said.
Enlarge
A little bit of magic: Phyllis with the camera she snapped the winged creature on. After researching on the internet, she cannot explain what she captured
Hoax: The Cottingley fairies, photographed by two young girls in 1917. In the 1980s they admitted that the photos were fakes - though the daughter and granddaughter of one of the girls believe that some of the photos were genuine
'Looking back, I think there was a fungi fairy ring in the garden at the time I took the picture, but I don't really know what to make of it all.
'To be honest, I don't know what it is and I'm keen to listen to anyone's suggestions. But until someone can tell me otherwise I'm going to go on thinking it's a fairy.'
Experts and the simply sceptical will no doubt point to explanations involving reflections, flashes or technical glitches.
But then, that's just taking all the magic out of it.
dailymail.co.uk
Whilst chatting with relatives in the back garden of her home in Croydon, south London, Phyllis Bacon decided to casually snap a picture of her garden.
When looking at the photo later, Phyllis noticed what looks like a winged creature near some bushes on the right of the picture.
But, after dismissing the idea that it might be a moth, a butterfly or a beetle, Phyllis believes it may be a fairy.
However, it is highly likely that the unknown being IS just a flying insect and not a little winged person inhabiting her garden.
This photo is highly reminscent of the Cottingley Fairies, who supposedly made friends with two young girls, 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her cousin, 10-year-old Francis Griffiths, in the village of Cottingley, near Bradford in Yorkshire in 1917.
The two girls took amazing photographs of them playing with their fairy friends, who often appeared to be dancing in the photos. The photos made news across a war weary Britain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, took part in an investigation.
However, in 1981 the girls - by this time, of course, elderly women - admitted that the photos were fakes, although they insisted that they HAD seen real fairies.
Frances' daughter and granddaughter appeared on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in Belfast, aired on BBC One on January 4 2009, with all five original photographs and the camera given to the girls by Conan Doyle. The set was valued at £40,000 or more. When asked, both women agreed that they believed the fairies in the fifth photograph to be genuine.
Croydon Tinker Bell... are there fairies at the bottom of the garden?
By Rebecca English
08th September 2009
Daily Mail
Urban Croydon, south London, is the last place you'd expect to find fairies
It fluttered into her life and left a little bit of fairy dust.
But no matter how hard Phyllis Bacon scours her garden, she can find no trace of her silver-winged visitor. All she has is this picture.
And as she examines the photo of the tiny glowing creature darting around above her lawn, she finds herself believing in fairies.
Enlarge
Fairy odd: Phyllis Bacon took this picture of what appears to be a fairy while she was chatting to relatives
Fairies who frolic at the bottom of gardens in New Addington, near Croydon in South London.
Mrs Bacon, 55, said she was not even looking through the camera at the time she took the picture.
Enlarge
Close up: The mysterious 'fairy' caught on camera
Instead she simply clicked the button while holding it at arm's length out of the back door while chatting with relatives in her kitchen after dinner.
Astonished by what she saw when she glimpsed at the picture, she has spent months seeking a rational explanation.
But after scouring the internet for pictures of butterflies, moths and beetles that might match it, she has drawn a blank.
'I think it must be a fairy,' she said yesterday as she made the picture public for the first time.
'No one I've shown the photos to has come up with any plausible explanation as to what the figure is.' The photo reminds some of the Cottingley fairies, photographed in a West Yorkshire garden in 1917.
At the time, Elsie Wright, 16, and her ten-year-old cousin, Frances Griffiths, claimed to have captured images of themselves playing with tiny winged creatures.
Only many decades later did they admit that the photographs were faked and involved cut-out drawings of fairy figures that were fastened to foliage with hatpins.
Mrs Bacon insists her photograph, taken in 2007, involved no sleight of hand.
She said she had been reluctant to show it off widely for fear of being branded 'nutty'.
'I used to like fairy stories as a child, but I can't claim to have ever seen one before or since,' she said.
Enlarge
A little bit of magic: Phyllis with the camera she snapped the winged creature on. After researching on the internet, she cannot explain what she captured
Hoax: The Cottingley fairies, photographed by two young girls in 1917. In the 1980s they admitted that the photos were fakes - though the daughter and granddaughter of one of the girls believe that some of the photos were genuine
'Looking back, I think there was a fungi fairy ring in the garden at the time I took the picture, but I don't really know what to make of it all.
'To be honest, I don't know what it is and I'm keen to listen to anyone's suggestions. But until someone can tell me otherwise I'm going to go on thinking it's a fairy.'
Experts and the simply sceptical will no doubt point to explanations involving reflections, flashes or technical glitches.
But then, that's just taking all the magic out of it.
dailymail.co.uk
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