Rostherne Mere is the largest and
one of the most picturesque lakes in Cheshire. It is also very
deep, at more than a hundred feet, and was once believed to be
bottomless. It is an area steeped in legend and it is the legend
which is the subject of this cache.
The legend of the Rostherne Bell
tells of a workman who was carrying a new bell to St. Mary’s
Church in Rostherne village. For some reason the workman cursed the
bell and he was immediately knocked into the Mere and drowned,
followed by the bell. Neither the workman nor the bell were ever
recovered from the bottomless depths.
Another version of the legend tells
how the Mere is connected to the River Mersey and thence to the
Irish Sea by an underground channel and that every Easter a mermaid
swims upstream to the Mere and rings the bell hidden in the watery
depths. This is not as strange as it sounds as Rostherne Mere was
the only known location in Britain for a form of freshwater smelt,
an esturine fish of the salmon family, which may indicate a former
connection to the sea via an estuary. The last specimen of smelt
was caught here in the 1920’s.
People would visit the Mere on Easter
Sunday in the hope that they would see the mermaid, hear the bell
or hear the mermaid sit on the bell and sing while combing her
hair.
The Mere and the surrounding
woodlands were bequeathed to the nation by Lord Egerton of Tatton
and are now managed as a closed nature reserve by English Nature.
Unfortunately you can’t get close to the lake now without
their special permission, although you can get a good view of it
from around the cache site. There is also an excellent view from
St. Mary’s Church in Rostherne village a few hundred metres
to the south east. The church and village are well worth a visit
anyway.
St.Mary's
Church, Rostherne
It's best to park in the village and walk down the hill to
the cache as the road is quite narrow though not too busy. There is
a limited parking spot nearer the cache at N53.20.956 W002.23.443
but don't stay long as you'll be blocking a gate.
The cache itself is just by the road
overlooking the Mere and lies outside the nature reserve. Take care
when opening the cache itself - ensure you are alone and
don’t make any noise or you may disturb the mermaid. If you
are especially quiet you may hear the Rostherne Bell
itself…