HistoricaLEIGH - Doom of the witches pond!

October 7, 2014 by Carole Mulroney

IS IT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM?

There are not many people in Leigh who haven’t heard of ‘Doom’ or the ‘Witches’ Pond.

Until the beginning of the 20^th Century Leigh had  a very busy pottery  in Leigh Road which made mainly domestic articles  like drain pipes and pots, but in their spare time the men tried their hands at flower vases and ornaments, several are on display in the Heritage Centre in the Old Town.

A pottery needs water and of course there was a pottery pond which came to be known as Doom Pond where there had been several drownings and where legend has it witches were ‘ducked’ to prove their guilt or innocence.  But is that really so?

Canon King, the Rector of St Clement’s for over 50 years spanning from Victorian times to post the Second World War,  had a little column, much like this, in the local paper where he passed on interesting anecdotes and parish news.  He referred to the massive triangular pottery kiln on the site as the ‘Dome’ so is it much of a stretch of the imagination that this became corrupted into ‘Doom’?

Maybe we will never know but its nice to have a local legend or two!