There are three mysterious ponds in a marshy piece of open land near Croft-on-Tees, England. It's freshwater fed by springs and is estimated to be 20 feet deep. They might've appeared there during the Middle Ages. These ponds were mentioned in the Brompton's Chronicle, written in 1328, describing it as making an incredible show at Christmas.
"The ground rose up so high with such vehemence that it was equal to the highest tops of the mountains, and towered above the lofty pinnacles of the churches, and at that height remained from the ninth hour of the day even to sunset. But at sunset it fell with so horrible a crash, that it terrified all who saw that heap, and heard the noise of its fall, whence many died from that fear; for the earth swallowed it up, and caused in the same place a very deep pit."
(This is the English translation from Latin that it was originally written). Some suggest that what happened back then were collapsed coal pits. People living around the location have often called them kettles of Hell and Devil's Kettles. It's also believed that tormented angry spirits were living inside them. Many claimed to have heard screams and shouting coming from within the kettles.
Even after the Age of Reason, people found the kettles unsettling. During the Victorian era, the water in the kettles were "boiling" hot! It was written that there was foam also in the water, accompanied by eerie sounds that were like human screams. Found to be haunted, the gothic Victorians connected the kettles with ghosts. The temperature of the water changes from hot to cold, and followed by a smell of sulphur.
The kettles formed in a horrific way back in 1179 when the ground rose up at a towering height and then fell down with a thunderous loud crash that made some die of heart attacks. Theories about what this was range from collapsing pits to natural breakup of a gypsum and mudstone landslide. To me it sounds like a natural geyser that erupted due to an amount of pressure. If it were then it's the only recorded natural geyser to have happened in that part of the UK.
She Wolf Night
This is where Lewis Carroll got his inspiration from when he wrote Alice in Wonderland.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, except the rabbit hole Alice fell in wasn't sulphur smelling. I believe that he was off his head on opium when he wrote Alice in Wonderland.
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