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Thanks all. I've written to Neil apart. Mermaid Pits in Suffolk. I have both with and without genitive. I also have two reference to a ‘Mermaids spring’/Mermaid spring in 1890 in the Bury Free Press (the same author). I've been trying to determine whether this is another name for the Mermaid Pits. I think it is. Probably just a mistake on the part of the author. I again undertook to walk the whole distance from Bury St. Edmunds to Mildenhall, along the banks of this interesting stream [the Lark]… Friday last, May, in order to be able give readers full and accurate account or the progress the work…. A nearly direct cutting has been made from the Makings corner, near the Fornham road, right across the meadows alongside the old course of the stream. Many of the twisting nooks and corners are done away with, and a good sound course has been formed, some thirty feet or more wide, and over six feet deep, and running within a quarter of a mile of the town, with an abundant supply water, not from the old Botanic Gardens stream alone as many people imagined, but from some very powerful springs called the Mermaids spring near the railway, but which stream for the time being is diverted, and so runs into the Lark near the old Clough, close to the Mailings. Notes, Bury Free Press (17 May 1890), 2 the new course of the river is rapidly approaching the town... I found the old Clough completed with its new draw gates and nearly seven feet of water. Just in front of this the great supply of water comes in from the Mermaid springs. I push on and come to Mr. Wicks' Mills Notes, Bury Free Press (12 Jul 1890), 3. I also have a folklore correspondent who is insistent that there is a Mermaid Well in Fornham itself. I've found no evidence of this and am inclined to think it is some kind of misunderstanding. I only found a couple of names that I could connect to Mermaid Inns. Cut and paste from my paper: In two cases we can credibly explain a name with reference to local taverns. The Mermaid Field in Christian Malford was used from the late nineteenth century for village fairs. The major tavern in Christian was the Mermaid Inn. It is a reasonable presumption that the field was the one next to the Inn, which stood on the northern edge of the village. We can be still more definite in the case of Mermaid Field in Wells. This field we know, from various sales notices, was on the western edge of the town where, on Tucker Street, the Mermaid Inn stood. Here not only do we have a Mermaid Field and a Mermaid Inn in the same community, but positive proof that they were adjacent to one another. The Christian Malford and Wells names are nice examples of how a building name can seep down into landscape names. Having said this, I know of no other landscape name likely based on a Mermaid Tavern (or some such; for one possible example see Mermaid’s Pool at Leek, in the Appendix). I've just had a Mermaid Beach in Folkestone pointed out to me, which seems to be very recent. Thanks again! ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the EPNL list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=EPNL&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/EPNL, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/