Prophetic Noise

Mermaid Pool by Harriet Burns

One rain filled day at midnight
On a Moorlands ridge and path
We spied with eyes of wonder
A mermaid from ancient past
Those dark and barren waters
Where creatures drinketh not
The Black-Mere O Morridge
A siren best forgot

Stephen Harvey 2011


The Mermaid of Black Mere Pool
Links and info source here 

 Black Mere Pool, in the North Staffordshire Moors near the town of Leek, is the site of what may be the only inland mermaid legend in England. The small, remote hilltop lake, around fifty metres wide, is a particularly haunting site. Set on the craggy and barren southern edge of the Peak District, beside the Leek to Buxton road, it is said that the dark peat-stained waters of the pool are bottomless; cattle refuse to drink there and birds never fly above it. Over the centuries it has been the scene of a number of mysterious drownings and even a murder when, in 1679, a woman pedlar was dumped in the pool by a local serial killer. Tradition holds that the mermaid rises from the pool at midnight to lure unwary travellers to their deaths in the dark watery depths – but only single men, apparently. There are various legends concerning the origin of the mermaid. In one, a sailor from nearby Thorncliff fell in love with her and brought her back from sea, and in another she was originally a witch who transformed herself into a water nymph after been thrown into the pool during the Middle Ages.

Mermaid Pool