The Legend of Bomere Pool: A Giant Fish. With a Sword!

How do you measure something when you haven’t got the right tools?

When people in ancient times stood around Bomere Pool, they wondered at its depth. They tossed a pebble in. They found the longest length of rope in town and tied it around a stone, then threw it in. Soon, there was only just enough of the rope left to keep ahold of, but the stone still hadn’t reached the bottom.

The only explanation was that the pool must be bottomless. And what, traditionally, lives in bottomless depths? Giant sea creatures.

Or, in the case of Bomere Pool, a giant fish. With a sword! (Cue guitar riff)

As you’d expect of most things wielding a sword, Good Sir Fish isn’t one that’s easily caught. The closest anyone came was when he was once taken by surprise and pulled to shore in a net – but he was able to saw through the netting and free himself and the other helpless fish companions.

While undoubtedly a very cool image (and a bangin’ idea for a tattoo), one has to wonder: where on earth did Good Sir Fish get that sword? The answer depends on who you ask.

One tale tells that he guards the sword on behalf of 11th century Shropshire hero Wild Eadric, who led the resistance against the Norman conquest (and appears in another of our tales). I’m not sure why he entrusted the sword to Fish, but I would refrain from speaking French on the shores of the pool, just in case.

Another option for the sword’s origin brings us back to that first question: how do you measure something when you haven’t got the right tools?

Well, in the 15th century, a group of gentlemen had that very problem. They’d caught the biggest fish they’d ever seen, but they had no way to be sure if it was actually a record breaker. They certainly didn’t have cameras, and none of them could sketch; embroidery takes an awfully long time. But one portly squire from Condover had just the idea!

He unstrapped his belt (we have no record of his friends’ reactions) and immediately strapped it around the fish. As he held it up to show the fish around, the fish jolted in his hands. He tried to keep hold, but the fish was simply too slippery - and so fell back into the pool, belt and all.

If that’s the case, I can only hope the Condover squire was able to retrieve his keys, if not his sword.