Goodwins Pool. Cheshire, UK

Photo by Gary Tacagni.

Goodwins pool covers an area of about one acre and is very popular with fishermen, having hosted many fishing tournaments here. The pool although looking very natural and picturesque is actually man made and is thought to have been formed sometime in the 17th century when material was excavated during the building of the Congleton to Holmes Chapel road which can be found nearby. After the material was excavated the hole that was left eventually filled with rainwater and that is how the pool was formed, over the years trees and plants have taken root so that to all intents and purposes we are left with a pool that looks as though it has been naturally formed. If you were to travel along the Congleton to Holmes Chapel road you would encounter similar pools every few miles or so, this is more evidence to show that excavations took place at regular intervals in the search for more construction materials.

Goodwins pool sets itself apart from other pools in the area due to the fact that it is haunted. According to local legend the ghost of a woman is said to haunt the pool when her horse drawn carriage overturned one day as she was passing, this resulted in her drowning, and since that day her ghostly spirit has been seen close to the pool where the accident occurred.

The name Goodwin is thought by many to be the name of the woman who lost her life so tragically here, but in fact it refers to the name of the landowner on whose ground the pool can be found on. The Cheshire area is in fact renowned for the amount of pools that can be found within its borders, this is due to the poor quality of the soil which can be found here which has large amounts of clay in it. To overcome this and to make the soil more productive and easier to work with, large amounts of sand were excavated and mixed with the clay rich soil to make it more workable, this resulted in holes being left all over the Cheshire countryside which filled with rainwater and left pools across the landscape similar in appearance to Goodwins pool.