The Sleeping Girl of Turville

Ellen Sadler (15 May 1859 – October 1946), sometimes called The Sleeping Girl of Turville, was a resident of Turville, a small village in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. In 1871, aged eleven, she reportedly fell asleep and did not wake for nine years. The Sadlers were a large, impoverished family Ellen's father died while she was an infant; Ann Sadler subsequently married Thomas Frewen. The family did not have much money, so the parish vicar, The Reverend Studholme, asked Hayman to secure Ellen's admission to a local hospital, but there is no supporting evidence.|group="nb"

Nevertheless, Hayman affirmed, "every effort [had] been made to discover the deception, if any, but without effect." The Home Secretary and local Magistrate corresponded about the case but the law was powerless to interfere, because despite accepting donations, Ellen's family never asked for money outright, and she "was not represented as a 'fasting girl, Thomas Frewen was reported as being "quite evasive" when the coroner asked him how Ellen was fed, and although Hayman testified to reaffirm his stance that Ellen's illness was genuine, Reverend Studholme was less certain. However, he could not offer any evidence to this effect, even though he had made several unannounced visits to Ellen's home. Charsley concluded that Thomas could not look after Ellen, as his job left him absent from their home all day, and that the other members of the household would be too busy with its upkeep. Therefore, he turned Ellen's care over to her married sisters, Elizabeth Stacey and Grace Blackall, both of whom lived in Turville. The cause of Ann's death was found to be oedema of the heart, from which she had been suffering for many years.

Five months later, Ellen awoke; by November, she had "fully recovered". By this time, Ellen was twenty-one and claimed to remember nothing of the previous nine years. She otherwise suffered few long-term effects, save for slightly stunted growth and a "weak eye".

Later life and legacy Ellen Sadler's family home in Turville, Buckinghamshire. Later named "Sleepy Cottage" after Ellen's case, and also used during filming of the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley. In 1886, Ellen married Mark Blackall in nearby Fawley. In the censuses of 1891 and 1901, the pair are listed as living in Barkham and Caversham, respectively. They had five children: Ann (b. 1888), Elizabeth or Mable (b. 1889), Gladys (b. 1890), Sydney (b. 1896) and Gertrude (b. 1898). Ellen and Mark appear in the 1911 census together with Sydney and Gertrude, all living in Lower Caversham. The census also records that they had six children, one of which had died.

The case of Ellen Sadler has remained a part of local folklore, spawning tales of witchcraft and rumours of royal attention in Turville. The Sadler family home became known as "Sleepy Cottage", and was used for filming of the BBC situation comedy The Vicar of Dibley. No clear cause has ever been ascribed for Ellen's condition; modern diagnoses might include narcolepsy, or deliberate drugging, and the possibility that it was a hoax cannot be discounted. An embellished account of the story can be found in the 1973 collection Witchcraft in the Thames Valley by Tony Barham.