Blakemere Pond

Blakemere Pond, also known as Black Mere Pool or Mermaid's Pond, is a small, natural lake in Staffordshire, England, six miles north-west of Leek. The pond is the subject of an enduring legend that claims that the water is haunted by the ghost of a mermaid.
The earliest known record of the lake is from 1686, when Robert Plot wrote about it in his book The Natural History of Staffordshire. According to this text, the pond used to be much larger than its current diameter of 50 yards . There is some evidence of an artificial trench dug towards its eastern shore which could be the remnants of an attempt to lower the water level.

Wikipedia