The Legend
	Along from the Mermaid Inn is the Mermaid Pool (Blakemere) which has aroused much interest for the last 10 Centuries. For all those years ago, a local beauty was pursued and persecuted by one Joshua Linnet who had her apprehended, trussed up and cast into the so called 'bottomless pool'. Whether or not this young woman was a witch is open to debate. It is said however that as she sank beneath the water she had the look of the devil, screaming vengeance on the perpetrator, the said Joshua Linnet.
	She vowed that her spirit would haunt the pool from that moment on and that one day she would drag her executioner into the murky depths. It is a recorded fact that three days later Linnet was found dead, drowned in the pool, his face torn as if by talons. That was over a thousand years ago but the legend lives on to this day. Only a stout hearted fool would venture near the pool around midnight when the beautiful mermaid is said to appear. It is believed to be fatal to approach her when she calls as she will endeavor to drag you down into the pool. There are many stories told surrounding this small body of water. Tales of people disappearing without trace with only a few living to tell of strange eerie happenings. No bird or animal will drink at the pool which has never been seen to freeze over in the harshest winter or change its level during the most scorching of summer droughts.
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				Extract from, 'History of the ancient Parish of Leek' - circa 1883 De lacu in Staffordia:- "A lake with prophetic noise doth roar, Where beasts can ne'er be forced to venture o'er, By hounds or men or fleeter death persued, They'll not plunge in, but shun the hated flood.
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