Doxeys Pool is a mysterious stretch of water that lies on The Roaches, a ruggedly beautiful gritstone ridge on the Staffordshire Moorlands. The pool never runs dry, not even during the harshest drought, yet does not appear to have any water source feeding it.
Folklore claims that the pool is haunted by a malevolent spirit known as Jenny Greenteeth. She would appear as a beautiful young woman when any lone man walked by, tempting him into the water towards her, but he would wade into a very deep part of the pool whereupon she would reveal her true self. A monstrous humanoid creature, part woman and part fish, green in colour and with huge protruding teeth, Jenny Greenteeth would drag the hapless man to his watery doom.
This isn't the only pool in the Peak District with a story like this, as the nearby Blakemere Pool was said to be haunted by an aquatic ghost who the locals tried to kill as a witch, and Mermaid Pool near Kinder Scout is also the legendary home of a mermaid who only appears on Easter Sunday. I think the Peak District is the only place in Britain with such a concentration of inland mermaid folklore!
These tales may be the remnants of old stories of pre-Christian worship of goddesses and nymphs in sacred pools, as stretches of water were once regarded as entrances to the Otherworld, liminal spaces where the supernatural can manifest.
I take a walk along The Roaches, as well as other areas of the Peak District, in my book The Mystery Of Mercia - available at the link in the comments.
