Crazywell Pool or Crazy Well Pool is a large

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

situated about south of

Princetown Princetown is a villageDespite its name, Princetown is not classed as a town today – it is not included in the County Council's list of the 29 towns in Devon: located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the p ...

just off the path between

Burrator Burrator is a grouped parish council in the English county of Devon. It is entirely within the boundaries of the Dartmoor National Park and was formed as a result of the Local Government Act 1972 from the older councils of Meavy, Sheepstor and ...

and

Whiteworks Whiteworks (or White Works) is a former mining hamlet near the town of Princetown, within Dartmoor National Park, in the English county of Devon. Tin mining is central to the history of settlement at Whiteworks, which was once home to one of Da ...

on the western side of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England at . It is about long and has a surface area of about . The pool is thought to be the result of excavations by tin miners, and is either a

flooded mine A flooded mine is one of the direct results of a mine's closure procedure. When a mine stops operating, its maintenance systems also stop, in which the dewatering systems are included. Without these systems the mine will get flooded by water that ...

shaft, or a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

. The presence of tin workings downhill from the pool support this view. The valley of ( Newleycombe Lake) has been extensively worked with many mining remains along its short length. The level of the pool never varies much from its mean—it is maintained by a hidden spring and by subterranean drainage at its lower end. Near to the pool is Crazywell Cross, one of the line of crosses that marked the ancient track between

Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey cons ...

and

Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and S ...

. In 1998, Nathaniel Burton, a sixteen-year-old recruit in the Royal Marines died in Crazywell Pool. He was taking part in a routine training exercise and drowned while crossing the icy waters of the pool.

Legends

There are no natural lakes on Dartmoor, which may be one reason why Crazywell Pool has attracted more than its share of local legends. It was once believed to be bottomless, and according to local legend the parishioners of

Walkhampton Walkhampton is a village and civil parish on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. The village lies on the Black Brook, a tributary of the River Walkham, about south-east of Tavistock, near the villages of Horrabridge, ...

(or

Sheepstor Sheepstor is a village, civil parish and former manor on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. In 2001, its population was 53, down from 95 in 1901. For administrative purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes of ...

) brought up the bell ropes from the parish church to test its depth. Even after tying the ropes together—a total length of over 500 feet—and weighting the end, it was claimed they were still unable to reach the bottom. This legend was disproved in the dry summer of 1844 when the pool was almost completely pumped out by the Plymouth Dock Water Company to supplement the water supply of

Devonport Leat The Devonport Leat is a leat in Devon constructed in the 1790s to carry fresh drinking water from the high ground of Dartmoor to the expanding dockyards at Plymouth Dock (which was renamed as Devonport, Devon on 1 January 1824). Feedwaters It ...

which runs along the hillside not far above the pool. The reality is that the pool is about deep at the western end and considerably less at the eastern end. Crazywell Pool is the subject of other Dartmoor superstitions. The

water level Water level, also known as gauge height or stage, is the elevation of the free surface of a sea, stream, lake or reservoir relative to a specified vertical datum.ISO 772: 1996. Hydrometric determinations – Vocabulary and symbols. See also * ...

was said to rise and fall with the tides at sea, and it was claimed that at dusk the waters call out the name of the next parishioner to die and that their face can be seen in the surface of the pool at midnight on

Midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe. The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian mart ...

's Eve. The pool was also said to be haunted during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

by the Witch of

, who gave people bad advice. Legend says she advised

Piers Gaveston Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall (c. 1284 – 19 June 1312) was an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favourite of Edward II of England. At a young age, Gaveston made a good impression on King Edward I, who assigned him to the househo ...

, who owned the

Forest of Dartmoor The Forest of Dartmoor is an ancient royal forest covering part of Dartmoor, Devon, England. A royal forest was an area reserved by the king for hunting, and William the Conqueror introduced the concept of forest law in England in the 11th ce ...

from 1308, and who was in hiding here after being banished from the

king's court King's Square is an open area in the city centre of York, in England. It is popular with tourists, who are often entertained by buskers and street performers. Nikolaus Pevsner notes that "the square has trees, which distinguishes it". The Y ...

, telling him to return to court, predicting that "his humbled head shall soon be high". Instead, he was captured by the king's enemies and beheaded and his head was set up on high battlements. More recently, two young men were said to have gone to the pool at midnight one Midsummer's Eve on a motorbike for a dare, but they never returned because on their way back the motorbike came off the road, killing them both.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Newspaper travel review
Dartmoor Devon folklore