Page "Cottingley Fairies" Paragraph 26

Public interest in the Cottingley Fairies gradually subsided after 1921.

Elsie and Frances eventually married and lived abroad for many years.

In 1966, a reporter from the Daily Express newspaper traced Elsie, who was by then back in England.

She admitted in an interview given that year that the fairies might have been " figments of my imagination ", but left open the possibility she believed that she had somehow managed to photograph her thoughts.

The media subsequently once again became interested in Frances and Elsie's photographs.

BBC television's Nationwide programme investigated the case in 1971, but Elsie stuck to her story: " I've told you that they're photographs of figments of our imagination, and that's what I'm sticking to ".