The Bells Under Bomere Pool
Under a quiet lake in Shropshire, legend says, lies a drowned town, and on Christmas Eve its church bells can still be heard.
What was reported
Bomere Pool is a small, deep lake in the countryside south of Shrewsbury. Local legend says a town once stood where the water is now, and that its people turned away from their church. One night the waters rose and swallowed it.
Ever since, it's said, the town's bells can be heard ringing beneath the water at Christmas, and on still days some have claimed to see its roofs far below. The lake was also said to be bottomless.
Explanations offered
Bomere Pool is a kettle hole, a hollow left by a melting block of ice at the end of the last ice age, and there's no evidence of a town beneath it. Drowned-town legends with ringing bells are found across Britain and Europe, often explaining a lake or a lost settlement nearby.
- When
- Told since at least the 1800s
- Where
- Bomere Pool, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Shropshire folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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