Mother Ludlam
Anything you need, on loan. Two days, and not an hour more.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Gated sandstone cave with a spring
- Legend from
- Aubrey (fairy version, 1670s); Grose (1785) and later (witch version)
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Witch · Moor Park, Farnham
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Anything you need, on loan. Two days, and not an hour more.
Stand where it happened
The cave is gated (for bats) but visible from the riverside path below Moor Park. Check before you go.
Ask nicely at the cave mouth and Mother Ludlam will lend you anything. Just bring it back in two days.
Mother Ludlam's Cave is a small sandstone hollow in the Wey valley at Moor Park, with a spring running out of it. In 1216 a monk of Waverley Abbey dug out this spring to supply the abbey, and it became St Mary's Well. The legend says a kindly white witch, Mother Ludlam, lived here. If you asked politely at the cave she would lend you what you needed, as long as it came back within two days. A borrower kept her great cauldron too long and fled with it to Frensham church. Earlier versions, such as Aubrey's, have fairies but no witch.