THE SPRINGS AND WELLS OF THE SOUTH DOWNS by Bruce Osbourne Source New Series 6 Summer 1998

LYMINSTER – KNUCKER HOLES

Knucker Holes in Sussex are said to be bottomless. Knucker comes from the Anglo-Saxon “nicor” – a water monster. There are various spellings including Nuck Hole. The one in Lyminster apparently never freezes, even in the most severe winters and was once reputed to be haunted by a dragon. The dragon, whose fiery breath kept foes at bay, would prey on the unfortunate residents of the locality and their livestock. The victims would be carried off to the marshy regions of the Arun, there to be consumed. The monster was eventually slain and the tomb of the dragon slayer lies in Lyminster Church. On the lid of the tomb is carved a sword, lying across the ribs of the monster. Clues to the scientific explanation of “Nucker Holes” can be gleaned from Whitaker writing in 1911. He notes that near Arundel, pits or depressions occur. These are partly natural but some have been enlarged artificially for mineral extraction. Their origin is swallow holes in the chalk and they occur in many places on the Downs.Where streams pass over the impermeable Tertiary beds they are occasionally swallowed into the chalk in well marked depressions. Sometimes after wet weather, water is emitted from such holes forming springs, depending on the state of the water table. Two swallow or “Nucker Holes” are reported by Whitaker at Patching and Clapham at the northern side of Jewshead Wood, west of the village with a further hole just west of the Wood. The name is probably similar to the “Nicker Pits” of East Kent.

References: Bord, Janet and Colin. Sacred Waters. London: Granada, 1985, p.81. Meynell, E. Sussex. London: Robert Hale, 1947, p.6-7. Whitaker, W. The Water Supply of Sussex, Memoirs of the Geological Survey. HMSO, 1911. p.146-7.

FULKING – RUSKIN’S FOUNTAIN AND THE SHEEP DIP (Map ref. TQ 247113)

Fulking as a name originates from the Saxon suffix “ingas” and means “people of Folca”. The village is noted for its attractive setting at the foot of the Downs and it was in Fulking that John Ruskin once enjoyed seeing the sunsets. The spring that once was the focus of the village, lies back from the main village street. It flows via an open stream to the Inn and then erupts into a stone block basin at the roadside. This was once used as a sheep wash by local shepherds, an event commemorated in the name of the local inn “Shepherd and Dog”. Alongside the basin is a Victorian Well House with a tiled inscription which reads as follows:

“HE SENDETH SPRINGS INTO THE VALLEYS WHICH RUN AMONG **THE HILLS** OH THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS”

The text comes from Psalm 104 v.10 “He sendeth the Springs into the rivers which run among the hills”, and Psalm 107 v.8 which reads “0 that men would praise the Lord for his goodness”. It appears to have lost some of its accuracy in the reproduction! The spring flows from the Lower Chalk and Upper Greensand, and in 1928, there was a ram pump to the village reservoir. The pump was located in the Victorian Well House according to Howe.’ The principal of the ram pump is that it uses the force of water to propel a small percentage of the total supply to a higher level. The reservoir overflow supplied Perching Farm and cottage. A few yards up the main street on the opposite side of the road to the Well House is an impressive brick and tiled public fountain, alas now dry. This is Ruskin’s fountain. John Ruskin was born in London in 1819 and died in 1900. Not only was he a renowned author, he was also a keen geologist and was instrumental in organising the water supplies for the village. The decorative public fountain with its inscription is the edifice that is particularly linked- with him. He was probably acquainted with Fulking through his friend Willett who had introduced Oliver Wendell Holmes to the district. The public fountain inscription reads:

“TO THE GLORY OF GOD”

Axom2 reports a red marble tablet with an inscription which is not now apparent, as follows: “To the glory of God and in honour of John Ruskin Psalm LXXV111 That they might set their hope in God and not forget but keep his commandments who brought streams also out of the rock”

Something of a mystery surrounds this inscription, both in its location and content. Howe3 notes that two contemporary newspaper accounts detail the inscription on the “pump house” but also suggests that the inscription may never have been put up in its entirety. The reason for this supposition is a letter from Ruskin dated 16th June 1887, to his friend Willett who composed the inscription.

“Dear Willett: Sincere thanks for your kind note and message from Dr. Wendell Holmes, but I am too sad and weary just now to see anything, and I was grieved by your inscription on the fountain, for it made my name far too conspicuous, nor did I feel that the slightest honour was owing to me in this matter.”

An alternative possibility is that much of the inscription was removed or concealed after Ruskin’s death in respect of his wishes. This would explain why Axom was able to report a tablet in 1897, three years before Ruskin died. A substantial area of plain red tiling may well have been where the original inscription was intended. If this is so the suggestion, noted by Howe, that the inscription was on the pump house where the ram pump was located, by the sheep wash, is misleading. The inscription “To the Glory of God” suggests that the remainder of the Ruskin inscription was on the public fountain and it may be that it still exists behind the tiles. Behind the fountain and spout there is a substantial chamber measuring about 3 metres high, 3 metres in depth and 2 metres in width. The chamber is built of brick and barrel vaulted with an access trap in the top. In the chamber there are assorted pipes and valves in a state of dereliction. The chamber is similar to cisterns behind public spouts found elsewhere. West Malvern has a comparable ‘structure, dated 1844, which acted as a storage tank for the public spout. It may well be that the chamber at Fulking was the village reservoir or just a valve chamber linked to the ram pump. Also adjacent to the spout is half of an iron plate with a partial inscription which once read, “C A Wells, Engineer, Lewes”. The spout, when running flowed onto an open gully which in turn supplied an animal trough a few feet away. Unfortunately all is in a sorry state of repair. Ruskin’s fountain is a modest example of -Victorian neo-gothic exuberance, a style which subsequently became less than fashionable, although with the revival in interest for Victorian architecture, should today be’ considered a treasure of great value. The elaborate design was clearly a celebration of the role that the water supply had played in establishing Fulking as a thriving village. The fountain did more however; its water refreshed the body and its beauty refreshed the spirit. The message was one of temperance and uplifting of the populace. They too could enjoy the magnificence of art and beauty while refreshing the body. Many Victorian philanthropists went further, not only advocating a message of temperance and toil but also calling on the scriptures to project a missive of evangelical morality and Christian principles. At the other (eastern) end of the village, beside the road are two iron pumps, one either side of the road. One is marked with a small plate with the familiar inscription, “C A Wells, Engineer, Lewes”. This company once operated the Etna Iron Works at Eastgate Wharf, Lewes. A similar pump is situated in a nearby garden. Also in another nearby garden is a well and bucket.

References: 1. Howe, F.A. A Chronicle of Edburton and Fulking. Crawley: Hubners, 1958, p.62. 2. Axom, L. Bygone Sussex. 1897. p.142. 3. Weaver, C. and Osbotrne B. Aquae Malvernsis, 1994, p.46-7.

Bibliography: Edmunds, F.H. Wells and Springs of Sussex, Geological Survey Memoirs. HMSO, 1928, 1V / 3.

 

The ancient, holy and healing wells of Bodmin Part one – The Scarlet Well

Bodmin has a remarkable collection of ancient, holy and healing wells and these will be discussed in a series of blog posts. Starting with the largest, the Scarlet Well which surprisingly, is probably named after a local landowner rather a saint. Maclean, in his History of Trigg Minor , writes that:

“this well probably derived its name from a family called Scarlet, anciently inhabitants of this town”.

John Scarlet was M.P. for Bodmin in 1312. However, the site is first mentioned by Richard Carew, in his 1603 Survey of Cornwall :

‘ Within short space after the great fame dispersed touching the rare effects of Warwickshire wells, some idle envious head raised a bruit that there rested no less virtue, forsooth, for healing all diseases, in a plentiful spring near unto Bodmin, called Scarlet’s Well ; which report grew so far and so fast that folk ran flocking thither in huge numbers from all quarters. But the neighbour justices, finding the abuse, and looking into the consequence, forbad the resort, sequestered the spring, and suppressed the miracle. Howbeit, the water should seem to be healthful if not helpful ; for it retaineth this extraordinary quality, that the same is weightier than the ordinary of his kind, and will continue the best part of a year without alteration of scent or taste ; only you shall see it represent many colours like the rain- bow, which (in my conceit) argueth a running through some mineral vein, and therewithal a possessing of some virtue.’

A. Quiller Couch in their 1984 Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall stated

“Of the Bodmin holy wells Scarlet’s Well, the most renowned of them, is in a valley threaded by a brooklet which, issuing from the grounds of the priory, welling in its well-stocked ponds, runs through the town of Bodmin to pay its tribute to the Camel river at Dunmeer. It was once more secluded, a footpath only leading that way ; now the Bodmin and Wadebridge railway runs a few feet from it. Consequently the Naiad has gone; and the virtues of the limpid streamlet, which runs as freely as of old, have left it for ever, except in the memory of a very few and very old devotees, by whom a morning’s walk for a drink or an eye bath is found to be repaid by never- failing cure.”

When Quiller Couch visited he noted that:

“There are no marks of building, but the shape of the excavation leads me to suppose that the water was once enclosed in an edifice. There are two separate issues : one which simply oozes, and another, a considerable and constant stream, which rises from a considerable depth.”

The current structure was clearly built after Thomas Blight wrote about it in his 1858 Ancient Crosses and Other Antiquities in the West of Cornwall stated that it was filled in because it too popular. The spring being sited in a grotto lined with Cornish stone in its natural state with a single chamfered stone on the right hand side that could have originally been a mullion or door jamb. It is not perhaps the most romantic of Cornish holy wells but is certainly one of the most active.

 

Felixstowe Spa one of Britain’s last spas

Extracted from a forthcoming book on Holy wells and healing springs of Suffolk

Felixstowe had an attempt to develop a mineral spring as a spa. Postcards advertised the spring showing a small white shed at the base of the cliffs and a sign proclaiming spa. Play bills state that:

“Felixstowe Spa – Natural Medicinal Water from a spring at the foot of a boring 177 feet deep below the London Clay and Red Crag beds.”

A Dr. J. E. Taylor states in the advert of the water that:

“It contains dissolved Chloride of Sodium, Carbonate of Lime, Magnesia, Iron, Sulphur, and Phosphates. The last is an important element as it makes the water a capital medicine for those suffering from nervous deposition, depression and overwork.”

He also stated that the:

“the water belongs to the class of Muriated Saline and in that class that includes the celebrated waters of Baden-Baden and Wiesbaden”

And that:

“The water is obtainable direct from the well, or mixed with Carbonic Acid and sold in large and small bottles.”

This local water analyst states in 1905:

“At the foot of Hamilton Terrace Cliffs, there is a valuable spa well with pump affixed, where visitors can partake of a water which contains valuable medicinal qualities being a gentle aperient, anti-dyspeptic and anti-gout water. Presently the pump room is only a temporary wooden structure, but the district council are contemplating the laying out of grounds, and the erection of a pump room and lounge worthy of the Spa. Parliamentary powers Act 1902. Thus Act gives the Town Council power to erect ‘buildings, apparatus and appliances for the supply and drinking of the waters from the said medicinal spring, and for the advantage, entertainment and amusement of persons resorting thereto’. The Act also confers to the council all the rights of bottling and selling the water, the building of concert halls on the land adjoining, and the construction of medicinal and sea-water baths.”

Thus in 1897, the Felixstowe Spa and Winter Garden Company planned to develop a public garden and ran a competition, won by a Brightwen Binyon, to design a pavilion and garden, and a winner. However it was never built and instead the Felixstowe and Walton Urban District Council in 1902 laid a garden with artificial stonework presumably by James Pulhama and Sons enclosed by a granite sea wall.

In 1909 the area was further developed with terraces, paths, shelters, and a spa pavilion. This was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War but rebuilt in 1950. What involvement the spa and how it was used during this period is unclear.

Interestingly there appear to be two sites both located in the Edwardian landscape Spa gardens. One is called the Wishing Well and it appears to be spring fed and flows through various Pulmannite rocks pieces into a small roughly metre square  It is unclear whether this shares the same properties as the Dripping Well which arises close to the entrance of the Spa Pavillion; which appears to be the said mineral spring. It produces a considerable flow and fills a large oblong pool in the shadow of the Spa Pavilion. These appear to be the only watery relics of one of England’s last spa attempts.