Lost worlds: The town beneath Kenfig Pool
By zteve t evans
The Kenfig Pool at Sunset - Robert Coorigan - CC BY 3.0
Kenfig Pool
Not far from Porthcawl, Bridgend in Glamorgan in South Wales lies Kenfig Pool that according to legend has a drowned town beneath its waters. Kenfig Pool is now part of a Kenfig National Nature Reserve which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and also a part of an important active sand dune system along the Glamorgan coast. The original borough of Kenfig was a place of some significance centred around or near Kenfig Castle. Both castle and town became buried by shifting sands during the late medieval period and the residents resettled further inland.
The drowning of Kenfig
According to local tradition the Kenfig Pool is said to be fed by seven springs and is bottomless. It is actually known to be about 12 feet deep. There is also supposed to be a whirlpool that drags boaters and swimmers to their doom called Black Gutter. Another legend tells that where the lake now stands there was once a thriving town that sank and became covered by water.
There are a number of variations and versions of the legend but generally they say that the daughter of a local lord was looking for a husband and she fell in love with a poor man of ordinary birth. Her father was against her marrying him because he was poor and he was below her station. Her lover, seeing her father wanted his daughter to marry a man of noble birth with money and he had neither resolved to leave the town to find his fortune. Many months later he returned and along the way met the lord’s rent collector carrying a sizeable amount of money he had collected from his lordship’s tenants.
Seeing this the young man ambushed him and killed him, hid the body and stole the money in the process. Now the young man was wealthy he went to the lord to ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Being impressed with the change in fortune of the young man the lord agreed and the marriage to his daughter went ahead. No one connected the disappearance of the rent collector with the return of the young man with his wealth thinking the rent collector had absconded with the money from the tenants.
Not far from Porthcawl, Bridgend in Glamorgan in South Wales lies Kenfig Pool that according to legend has a drowned town beneath its waters. Kenfig Pool is now part of a Kenfig National Nature Reserve which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and also a part of an important active sand dune system along the Glamorgan coast. The original borough of Kenfig was a place of some significance centred around or near Kenfig Castle. Both castle and town became buried by shifting sands during the late medieval period and the residents resettled further inland.
The drowning of Kenfig
According to local tradition the Kenfig Pool is said to be fed by seven springs and is bottomless. It is actually known to be about 12 feet deep. There is also supposed to be a whirlpool that drags boaters and swimmers to their doom called Black Gutter. Another legend tells that where the lake now stands there was once a thriving town that sank and became covered by water.
There are a number of variations and versions of the legend but generally they say that the daughter of a local lord was looking for a husband and she fell in love with a poor man of ordinary birth. Her father was against her marrying him because he was poor and he was below her station. Her lover, seeing her father wanted his daughter to marry a man of noble birth with money and he had neither resolved to leave the town to find his fortune. Many months later he returned and along the way met the lord’s rent collector carrying a sizeable amount of money he had collected from his lordship’s tenants.
Seeing this the young man ambushed him and killed him, hid the body and stole the money in the process. Now the young man was wealthy he went to the lord to ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Being impressed with the change in fortune of the young man the lord agreed and the marriage to his daughter went ahead. No one connected the disappearance of the rent collector with the return of the young man with his wealth thinking the rent collector had absconded with the money from the tenants.
Kenfig Pool - By Mick Lobb - CC BY-SA 2.0
Vengeance will come!
On the night of the wedding a terrible storm hit the town and a wild wind blew through the streets but above the howling wind a cry of “vengeance will come, vengeance will come, vengeance will come!" and ninth generation, ninth generation, ninth generation!”
It was a terrible storm and the townsfolk were shocked by the screaming wind but it eventually abated and life went on and everything eventually returned to normal and it was forgotten.
Vengeance is come!
The married couple appeared to have a happy life and had children who also had children and so on, but at last the ninth generation was born and on that night the storm returned and a wild wind screamed through the town howling, “Vengeance is come! Vengeance is come! Vengeance is come!
The next morning the people who lived in the countryside went to see what damage had been done to the town but were shocked to find that where the town once stood there was now a huge body of water. All that could be seen of the town were three chimneys sticking out of the middle of the water issuing clouds of black smoke. According to local tradition these are said to resurface before bad storms that cause the deaths of mariners from the locality. Sometimes it is said that the sad tolling of the church bells under the water can be heard floating across the water.
Lake Bala and Tyno Helig
This legend has similarities to that of the the Lake Bala and Tyno Helig legends. Both are flooded and threatened with vengeance in later generations. Tyno Helig was inundated by the sea and murder and robbery were committed by a young man who wanted to marry the lord’s daughter. The town of Bala became covered by water creating an inland lake.
© 27/01/2016 zteve t evans
On the night of the wedding a terrible storm hit the town and a wild wind blew through the streets but above the howling wind a cry of “vengeance will come, vengeance will come, vengeance will come!" and ninth generation, ninth generation, ninth generation!”
It was a terrible storm and the townsfolk were shocked by the screaming wind but it eventually abated and life went on and everything eventually returned to normal and it was forgotten.
Vengeance is come!
The married couple appeared to have a happy life and had children who also had children and so on, but at last the ninth generation was born and on that night the storm returned and a wild wind screamed through the town howling, “Vengeance is come! Vengeance is come! Vengeance is come!
The next morning the people who lived in the countryside went to see what damage had been done to the town but were shocked to find that where the town once stood there was now a huge body of water. All that could be seen of the town were three chimneys sticking out of the middle of the water issuing clouds of black smoke. According to local tradition these are said to resurface before bad storms that cause the deaths of mariners from the locality. Sometimes it is said that the sad tolling of the church bells under the water can be heard floating across the water.
Lake Bala and Tyno Helig
This legend has similarities to that of the the Lake Bala and Tyno Helig legends. Both are flooded and threatened with vengeance in later generations. Tyno Helig was inundated by the sea and murder and robbery were committed by a young man who wanted to marry the lord’s daughter. The town of Bala became covered by water creating an inland lake.
© 27/01/2016 zteve t evans
References and Attributions
Copyright January 27th, 2016 zteve t evans
Copyright January 27th, 2016 zteve t evans
- Kenfig Pool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Kenfig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Abandonedcommunities.co.uk
- Kenfig National Nature Reserve, Bridgend, Wale
- Wikimedia Commons - The Kenfig Pool at Sunset in March 2003 - Robert Coorigan - Webshots - CC BY 3.0
- Wikimedia Commons - File:Kenfig National Nature Reserve - geograph.org.uk - 2299291.jpg - By Mick Lobb - CC BY-SA 2.0
