EARLIER this summer, we were telling how Carr End Farm at Semerwater, near Bainbridge in upper Wensleydale, was on the market for £1.5m. Carr End was the home of the Fothergill family from 1667 to 1841 when they moved into Darlington and made their mark – the Fothergill fountain still welcomes people as they enter South Park.

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Semerwater is one of only four natural lakes in Yorkshire, and one of only two in the dales – the other being Malham Tarn.

Semerwater, by Heather MiddletonBecause it is so unusual, there are lots of stories about its creation. Most tell how once there was a thriving town out there in Raydale which one day, during a storm, was visited by a poor old man – perhaps an angel in disguise – who went from door to door asking for sustenance.

Everyone turned him away, except the inhabitants of the meanest hovel, who invited him in and gave him what they could.

As he left the town, the old man/angel-in-disguise uttered a curse: “Semerwater rise, and Semerwater sink, and swallow the town all save this house where they gave me food and drink.”

And a lake suddenly emerged and engulfed all the homes of the ungenerous inhabitants who, it is said, were condemned to forever remain in their watery graves, regretting they weren’t more charitable when they had the chance in life.

“Many years ago, we often used to drive past Semerwater and we always brought to mind The Ballad of Semerwater which made us wonder what was going on in those depths,” writes Maureen Doyle from Newton Hall, Durham.

The ballad was written by Sir William Watson, who was one of the most popular poets of the Victorian era, especially among those who agreed with his traditionalist and strident views about politics. Modernists of the 20th Century forgot about him, but he was able to conjure up some of the mysteries of the Semerwater depths:

Deep asleep, deep asleep,
Deep asleep it lies,
The still lake of Semerwater
Under the still skies.

And many a fathom, many a fathom
Many a fathom below,
In a king’s tower and a queen’s bower
The fishes come and go.

Once there stood by Semerwater
A mickle town and tall;
Kings’s tower and queen’s bower
And the wakeman on the wall.

Came a beggar halt and sore:
“I faint for lack of bread!”
King’s tower and queen’s bower
Cast him forth unfed.

He knocke’d at the door of the herdman’s cot,
The herdman’s cot in the dale.
They gave him of their oatcake,
They gave him of their ale.

He cursed aloud that city proud,
He cursed it in its pride;
He has cursed it into Semerwater
Down the brant hillside;
He has cursed it into Semerwater
There to bide.

King’s tower and queen’s bower,
And a mickle town and tall;
By glimmer of scale and gleam of fin,
Folk have seen them all.

King’s tower and queen’s bower,
And weed and reed in the gloom;
And a lost city in Semerwater,
Deep asleep till Doom.

“I wonder what is happening today in those depths,” says Maureen.

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Semerwater’s name comes from Old English words “sae” meaning “lake” and “mere” also meaning “lake”. Therefore, when someone refers to it as “Lake Semerwater”, they are really saying “lake lake lake water”.

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