Before we look at the most popular versions of the legend, Alderley Edge possesses not one but two tales which command interest and respect. The first, that of the Wizard, is still in motion and development. There is however a second, almost forgotten tale, which is intertwined with the tale of the Wizard, but yet, despite its apparent greater historicity, has rarely been recounted or examined in any detail. It is that of the unfortunate servant girl Ellen Beck – popularly known as ‘Nell’ Beck, who like the Wizard, knew where to find that entry to the underworld, The Iron Gates. In its most developed form Nell Beck’ tale is a tale about an uneducated servant woman betrayed in love, told by the aristocratic and literate daughter of a lord – who chooses her material with care, but who suppresses aspects unpalatable to the mid-victorian sensibility
and that is the sad tale of Ellen beck, this was an actual historical person and recorded in the parish register at wilmslow she sighted the iron gates, which are a pivotal part of the legend, and described them as a pair of folding iron gates situated not far from the holy well, but when she returned to show another person the gates were no where to be found, after this the tale of her life is a sad one. (An Eleanor Beck was baptized at Wilmslow church on 13 February 1721, which would make her of the right age for there to have been an historical Nell beck)