The Mermaids of Mapplewell
Come with me on a journey to the past. A past that was stranger than we could ever imagine.
In olden times, unusual creatures inhabited the earth but don’t imagine for a moment that I am talking about prehistoric days.
No, the story which unfolds below is only a little more than a hundred and fifty years old.
It was then, despite the technological advances being made by the people of the Victorian era, that mermaids were known to inhabit a secret area of a Yorkshire river.
What’s more,one of them- according to old documents that have recently come to light – was responsible for the disappearance of a young local lord.
The mermaid’s name was Lady Fairpools.
The story is clearly documented in the papers you see below. I was lucky enough to come across them due to a family connection and today seems like the perfect time to share them with you.
I’d heard stories when I was a child about how a family of merpeople had once lived in the River Dearne but you can imagine how excited I was to discover the documents below.
It seems that the merpeople were a family. They had travelled to the Barnsley area from Paris. Lady Fairpools‘ father, Aydoll of Paris, mother, Lady of Polaris and the rest of the family were escaping from the Paliray Floods of ’39.
But let me show you the documents themselves. Read how the lovely mermaid entrapped her man – who was never to be seen again.