Ursela Southeil otherwise known as Mother shipton was born in 1488 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England in a cave which is now visited by tourists (pictured above). She was supposedly very ugly yet had married Toby Shipton who was a local carpenter in 1512. It is said that she made predictions throughout her life including the prediction of the great fire of London and even the end of the world in 1881.
However it has been found that many of her supposed predictions are fake including a poetic verse circulated by William Harrison in 1881 in which cars and the phone are predicted after they have been invented. But of course these became her most famous prophecies despite the fact that they were fake. In fact the first publications of her life story and prophecies did not appear until 80 years after her death, so it is very hard to know if there is any truth in the story at all. Many people put her in the same category as Robin Hood, a story based upon the real person but something that gathers momentum and 'extras' as the story is told over and over. Below I have included the fake William Harrison prophecy:
- Carriages without horses shall go,
And accidents fill the world with woe.
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling of an eye.
The world upside down shall be
And gold be found at the root of a tree.
Through hills man shall ride,
And no horse be at his side.
Under water men shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk.
In the air men shall be seen,
In white, in black, in green;
Iron in the water shall float,
As easily as a wooden boat.
Gold shall be found and shown
In a land that's now not known.
Fire and water shall wonders do,
England shall at last admit a foe.
The world to an end shall come,
In eighteen hundred and eighty one
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