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2000s: Dare you even look inside the Drowning Pool?
2000s: Dare you even look inside the Drowning Pool?
Nel had always loved and talked about the Mill House, the dark and forbidding body of water beside it, known as ‘The Drowning Pool’. It fascinated her as being a place of secrets, mysteries and witchcraft. Nel had always been completely obsessed with stories of ‘troublesome’ women who had died here, how this ‘Drowning Pool’ has over the years claimed the lives of many women, for many different reasons…Once, in the 17th century, a 14 year old girl was pronounced as a witch during the Witchfinder Trials and drowned.
What powers does this Drowning Pool have and what secrets does the town of Beckford hold? It’s a town which seems to have drowned much of its shame and its shady past, but the tide is turning and into the water we go…
This is a very vague and ethereal version of Northumberland. The town of Beckford is fictional and when you realise what goes on here and the allure of the Drowning Pool, you won’t be sorry. Nel is said to have jumped into The Drowning Pool, obsessed with it as she was, but her daughter Lena is adamant that Nel wouldn’t have done that. What seems to have muddied the local waters somewhat is that Nel was writing a book about all those who had died in the pool, the reasons for it, and the people and cases linked to this local morbid landmark . Beckford was being placed on a very public map it would seem…
You loved the Mill House and thewater and you were obsessed with those women, what they did and who they left behind. And now this. Honestly Nel. Did you really take it that far?”
There was a stretch in from of the Wards’ cottage where the river widened, the water running quick and cool across rust-coloured pebbles at the edge, but in the centre it was deep, cold enough to snatch your breath from your lungs and make your skin burn, the kind of cold that made you laugh out loud with the shock of it”
Beckford is a fictional town or is supposed to be around an hour from Craster and Howick (pronounced Hoik) These two places are well worth a visit – especially Craster with its world famous kippers,the swirling waters of the North Sea and the cold air that catches your breath…
Water of all speeds and depths, the fast flowing river submerge you in a swirling sinister novel of intrigue, hidden depths and a bottomless pit of anguish….water draws you in and is surprisingly deceptive…
Author/Guide: Paula Hawkins Destination: Northumberland Departure Time: 2015, and various
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