by hildegard
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How Does Homeopathy Work?
The Story of Bottled Water
All images the photographer's copyright.
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Was rather taken with the snowdrop egg - very nearly too pretty to eat...
You'd like Bettys, Minky, really you would. It's like something from an Agatha Christie novel.
So elegant, and all those bodies in the basement too... Very Agatha Christie indeed :)
Eh? Bodies in the basement? No, come on, you have to explain that one.
I'm sure it's somewhere in their information leaflet. Something about when the rivers used to flood they got bodies floating up into their basement. I'm a bit hazy on the details now, but there were definitely bodies - that bit at least stuck in my head. I will check the exact details on Monday and report back.
Eek! Just realised my phone will be cut off tomorrow at high noon :( So probably won't be able to blog for a bit. Will be out in RHode Island with Crickson in 2 weeks though, so a near normal (hopefully improved!) service should resume about then.
I will find out though, didn't want you to think I'd just forgotten! (...If I still haven't posted the answer in 2 weeks I may have forgotten, so by all means remind me then :))
It would be worth the trip - it's not some ersatz tearoom experience, it's the real thing, perfectly preserved & beautifully done. Harrogate & York are my favourites. Though there is mail order too...
The Ilkley one is very nice too.
I'm sorry Hildegard but I'm afraid i was unable to substantiate my bodies in the basement story :( I'm sure I heard it somewhere and suspect it might be in my Ghost Stories of York book which is currently in a storage crate somewhere in Crickson's parents' garden shed... It's very infuriating!
There was nothing in Betty's itself to even hint at the story, so I asked the gentleman on the door if he could help me out with where i might have heard it. He seemed a bit cagey at first, and I had to reassure him I wasn't out to upset anyone who might be upset by that kind of thing (I got the impression it was a touchy subject). When he had relaxed a bit he said that when they were excavating St Helen's square 20 years ago they found the church's old graveyard, which Betty's is built over a bit of and that contained lots of bodies and other interesting things but that no bodies had ever come up in the cellars while he was there.
I may have got the story from a ghost walk, it's the kind of thing they'd tell. I expect once they'd bricked up the walls and floor that would stop anything 'unwanted' appearing.
Sorry I can't provide any better information but it will continue to niggle away in my mind until I can be reunited with that book at least!
Ta for checking - had wondered if St Helen's boneyard was behind the story. Glad I provided further excuses for visiting Bettys on your York farewell tour.
All excuses gratefully received, wherever Betty's is concerned :)