Peg O’Nell’s Well – nearly 30 years on!

In early 2023 I finally managed to visit Peg O’Nell’s Well and thought it might be interesting to see what it looked like after the article by Carole.The site lies in the grounds of Waddow Hall, which is still the headquarters of the Girl Guides. The site is private but I have been repeatedly told that they welcomed visitors if announced at the hall. The turn into the hall, right after the bridge of the Ribble is a tight one, leaving Clitheroe and soon the house is apparent. There is a car park beside the hall and here after parking, I did enquire from the House, although the well is clearly visible from the car park. As expected they were more than happy to help and had a small leaflet as well about the well – although this might have been the last one. I was directed to the well by the bank of the river below and found it easily,

The good thing is that the statue of Peg O’Nell remains and looks very similar to that shown in the original article (which was difficult to scan in to reproduce in the blog post incidentally). It certainly looks like a statue from an religious institute and would tend to agree that it is a figure probably of St Margaret, certainly lacking its head suggests that it would be, as at the Reformation it would have probably had its head hit off! What appears to have changed is the water of the spring, which appears to be dry despite the river nearby. The spring was observed in a very wet spring suggesting that it was possibly a permanent thing.

Peg O’Nell’s Well Clitheroe Lancashire OS 734 427 by Carole L Nelson Source New Series No 6 Summer 1998

A further instalment of the Source New Series articles

Peg O’Nell’s Well stands on the side of the river Ribble at Clitheroe in Lancashire. Waddow Hall, now the headquarters of the Girl Guide Association, overlooks the Ribble near Brungerley Bridge and the well is close by in a beautiful meadow on the edge of the river. The field in which the well ius located is owned by Waddow Hall and visitors should call at the hall to obtain permission to visit the well and to receive directions.

Before my visit to the well itself I had long been interested in the origin of the name.  Two alternative theories came to light in the course of my search for an explanation.

The first of these is a ghost story whose principle character is Peg O’Nell, a former young servant at Waddow Hall, who it is said, died whilst fetching water from the well after her mistress angrily wished that Peg might fall and break her next, A guide obtained from the hall itself elaborates this story y relating that Peg had told her mistress that of she died, she would put a curse on Waddow. Almost inevitably, “On that fateful morning, Peg slipped on the ice around the well and the malediction was fulfilled,” (2)

From that time everything that went wrong at Waddow was blamed on Peggy, the spirit of the Well. According to the guide, Peg was “inexorable in demanding, every seventh year, a life to be quenched in the rivers of the Ribble” and therefore, in order to save  human being from falling victim to the curse, a bird or animal was drowned when “Peg’s Night the last night of the seventh night came around.

It was comforting to learn, before I embarked on my visit to the well with my family, that the curse was in due course, broken. The guide tells of how a young male traveller was warned against crossing the Hipping Stones, or stepping stones, at Brungerley Bridge by an innkeeper who considered the river to be so swollen as to be unsafe. The innkeeper tried his best to dissuade him from crossing by adding that it was Peg’s Night but the traveller merely laughed and replied that if he died he would make sure that Peg O’Nell did not trouble the community again. He set off on his horse and was never seen again. His disappearance marked an end to Peg’s reign of terror at the well.

“The second account of the well name is associated with the headless statuette adjacent to the spring. It has been suggested that the figure possibly represents St. Margaret of Scotland (1046-93)(3). Margaret, according to her biographer, Turgot, is said to have brought a strongly piteous and civilizing influence to Scottish court following her marriage to Malcolm 111. It is supposed to have been moved following the Dissolution and it is possible that the plain name of Peg was employed in a derisory, anti-Catholic gesture. “

Alternately, the name and the servant girl story may have been a means of protecting the true identity of the statuette. Because some individual or group of individuals had obviously taken pains to secure its rescue it is possible they were Catholics. With a fictitious, non-religious cover story the statue, and those who protected it would have been less likely to suffer retribution at Protestant hands.

“The figure is now set in concrete to protect it against theft. Its base is a roughly cut rectangle and no feet are visible. One hand holds a stem of a flower or perhaps a scepter whilst the other holds a book. The back of the figure has no detailed sculpture, suggesting that in its original location it would have stood against a wall or inside a niche.

“The well itself appeared to have dried up at the time of my visit and I am uncertain whether this is its permanent condition. The cavity which would have held the spring is rectangular – roughly 4 x 3 ft and sinks to a depth of about 3ft. The area of the well is enclosed by a wooden fence.

References

1. Janet and Colin Bord Sacred Waters Granada Publishing 1985 p128
2. A 13 page guide entitled “Waddow” Pub Girl Guide Assn Details Waddow Hall, Clitheroe, Lancashire BB7 3LD
3. Stories and Tales of Old Lancashire Ed. Cliff Hayes Printwise Publications Ltd 1991 pp21-22 Note the editor states in the introduction that the stories were written approximately 1910. In the Story Peg O’Th’Well her erroneously refers to the ‘wooden image’ of Peg when she is in fact unmistakably carved from stone.

The Old Wells of Clitheroe Lancashire

Clitheroe is unusual that despite the onslaught of progress it retains its three old town wells, albeit in a dry condition. However, until the mid 1850s they were the sole source of water for the town.

St Mary’s Well is enclosed in walls with a flagged stone floor and is divided in two unequal sections by a stone walkway.  There are two entrances to the well enclosure, which face each other and are stepped down. They are well worn from the people entering and leaving. In the centre of the larger pool is another worn cube shaped stone which may have been used to wash clothes over. A plaque reads:

This well was one of the three public wells which formed the water supply of the borough until the establishment of the waterworks on Grindleton Fell under the Water Works act of 1854. Soroptimist International 1992″.

Despite its name, no healing or other attributions have been made. Similarly, the Heild Well is a likely holy well, its name Heil probably derived from Old English Helige although locally it is thought to derive from a word for roof as the well was roofed. It is first mentioned in 1634 and again a plaque on it reads:

This well was one of the three public wells which formed the water supply of the borough until the establishment of the waterworks on Grindleton Fell under the Water Works act of 1854. Soroptimist International 1992″.

The site located on Wellgate by the Dog Inn is also called the Town’s Well. Again the well is enclosed in walls and the floor inside has large slabs held together with metal staples. It is the largest of the wells and may have been used to water horses as near the steps down are what resemble mounting blocks

Close to Clitheroe Castle is the final well, the Stock Well. Again it is enclosed in a wall, but only has one entrance and the walls are not as substantial nor high. It does not have steps down either. The name is believed to derive from the presence of the town stocks after their removal from the market square; however it is more than probable, that it was the spring which supplied the town’s stock. The plaque on the well reads:

 “The smallest of the three borough wells used until water was supplied in 1856. It is first recorded in 1645. The well was sealed in 1880 after two children narrowly escaped drowning. The adjoining field was Stock Well Meadow”.

This near fatal incident and a cholera outbreak in 1849 lead to concerns over the cleanliness of the water supply by the towns health board, such that after a report from a Mr. B. H. Babbage, the Clitheroe Water company was established. This resulted in the installation of town pumps supplied by an enclosed reservoir in West Bradford. Fortunately, although the wells were abandoned the town was sensible enough to retain them as historic monuments. Indeed recently a group locally has formed to ensure that they survive fully, the wells have been dressed for heritage open days and this will hopefully ensure that they are not at risk which is a highly commendable venture.