2.4 The Mermaid of Blakemere
For this week’s episode, we’ve travelled to the dramatic landscape of the Peak District. Just north of the lovely town of Leek, out on the rolling peaks and dales, there is a lake where a mermaid waits.
The Dark Mere
The lake at Blakemere, also known as Black Mere for both the colour of its waters and its dark history, is associated with many tales of dark deeds and tragic betrayals. The round lake has been associated with murder and dark magic for many centuries. In 1679, it was the site of a murder, when the body of a local peddlar woman was dumped into the pool by an opportunistic killer who was robbing travellers.
The lake is quite small, but local legend has it that it is infinitely deep. In some stories, it is connected to another small lake, Doxy’s Pool, which is not far away. Tales tell that the mermaid uses this secret underground channel to pass back and forth between these two bodies of water.
Then there are the strange lights, phantom hands that appear and try to drag you into the mere. Blakemere is a haunted place it seems.
Other stories focus on the evils associated with the pool, telling of animals that refuse to drink from the dark waters or flocks of birds that fly around the pool. When naturalist Robert Plot visited the site for his 1686 book The Natural History of Staffordshire, he noted that his horse drank well from the water and the he saw many animals come to the pool. So perhaps these details were just eldrich additions to an already eerie legend.
The Mere Maid
There are many local tales explaining how the mermaid came to live in a small lake so far from the sea, some romantic and some tragic. Like many freshwater mermaid stories, the mermaid is associated with death and danger.
The most romantic and haunting is the story that the mermaid of the pool is a seamaid, brought back by a love-sick sailor from some far-flung ocean to be his love. There are different versions of just what happens next. Does the sailor tire of her, leaving her to become angry and resentful? Or, as a mortal, does he die, leaving her pining for a new love? We had a long think about using these stories for this episode but there was something about them that was too similar to the stories we’d already written for the episode on Sabrina of the Severn.
Then there are the more gruesome, tragic tales. The one that inspired Sam’s story tells of a local man called Joshua Linnet, who fell in love with a local girl. When the girl spurned his advances, he accused her of witchcraft and had her drowned in the mere. It is said that with her last breath, the girl cursed Linnet; three days later he was found dead, with claw marks on his face.
By some twist of magic, she returned as the vengeful mermaid, intent on wreaking her revenge by drowning every young man who comes near the pool.
The Mermaid Inn
In my mind, nothing is more romatic than an inn out on the wild moors. For me, it conjures up childhood memories of reading The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes or the haunting romance of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. So when I saw the picture of The Mermaid Inn during my research, I knew I’d be setting at least part of my story there. From there it was a short leap to imagine the landlord’s young daughter listening to her grandmother’s telling of (her version) of the legend of the Mermaid of Blakemere. One of the things I love about folklore is the adaptive nature of the stories, with every storyteller adding or subtracting elements to suit their reader. This particular tale seems to lend itself to a warning to young girls- be careful who you fall for, not every young man is trustworthy.