Mother Shipton
While in Knaresborough we came across a couple of statues which raised some questions for us and naturally sent us down a rabbit hole. Sadly, we didn't get to visit the infamous Mother Shipton's Cave as it was too late in the trip for us, but the statue of Ursula Southeil was enough for us to want to form this post and do some research into the legendary woman. Mother Shipton as she is better known, started out as Ursula Southeil, although her surname has also been listed as Southill, Soothtell, and Sontheil. It seems that, much like many figures of folklore, the name changes based on the story, as Soothtell must relate to Mother Shipton's role as a Soothsayer. Basically she could tell the future. She was born somewhere around 1486-1488 to a 15 year old mother in a cave, this cave happened to be in Knaresborough and we're sure you can put 2 and 2 together. Now the legends surrounding Mother Shipton have been around pre-1667 but it was in this year that the...
