The Bells in the Mere

Twenty oxen had the bells almost out. Then a man made one boast too many.

Colemere is one of the meres around Ellesmere. Burne records that a chapel once stood on its banks and its bells were thrown into the water; they are heard ringing on windy nights at full moon, or at midnight on the patron saint's day, said by one informant to be St Helen. Another version says a spring burst out and drowned a monastery. A Welshampton servant said Oliver Cromwell pulled down the church and threw the bells in. Once twenty oxen dragged them to the side on chains, until a man boasted 'in spite of God and the devil we have done it'. The chains snapped and the bells rolled back.