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Witch · Moor Park, Farnham

Mother Ludlam the lending witch

A witch who lent things out, with a two-day returns policy. One borrower never brought her cauldron back.

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Witch

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
WitchesHoly wellsMonks

Before you go

The cave is gated (for bats) but visible from the riverside path below Moor Park. Check before you go.

  • Mother Ludlam's Cave
  • Near Moor Park Lane
  • The pin marks the spot.

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.

Sources

  1. Mother Ludlam's Cave, Wikipedia —
  2. History, Mother Ludlam's Cave (site website) —
  3. The Fairies' Caldron (Aubrey, via Keightley), English Fairy and Other Folk Tales, ed. E. S. Hartland (1890), sacred-texts —

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