Category Archives: Gazatteer
The ancient and holy wells of Chollerton Part one – the wells of Colwell
The large parish of Chollerton in Northumberland perhaps has more named wells than other – a survey done in the 19th century recorded the following: Drop well, Level well, Dan well, Deadwood well, Dalla well, Madge’s well, East well, Hollywell, Coppies well, Margaret’s Well, Kate’s well, Crow well, Bank well, Nine wells, Tone well, West well, Bore well, Prickie’s well, Coley well and Robin Hood’s Well. Quite a significant number of wells it appears.
Charles Hope in 1893 in his Legendary Lore of Holy Wells notes of the village or rather hamlet of Colwell:
“This village, in the same parish of Chollerton, derives its present appellation from a well-known spring, not far from the now almost forgotten site of another early capella. With this an interesting relic of primitive worship used to be associated in a popular pilgrimage, and the bringing of flowers, to dress the well on or about Midsummer Sunday.”
It is reported by Northumberland Federation of Women’s Institutes in the 1994 The Northumberland Village Book that:
“where Colwell now stands. There were also three springs – Prickie’s Well, Robin Hood’s Well, and Coley’s Well which was almost certainly the most revered of the three.”
The spring he appears to refer to is Coley’s Well which appears to have associated with a fairly unique custom or rather uniquely named. A report in 1891’s Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne states:
“The well used to be celebrated as the ‘Bridal of Colwell’:”
A name which has a slightly pagan feel to it perhaps, This time the customs is said to have moved to the 4th, although those familiar to calendar customs will be aware that this is Old Midsummer’s Day, the day it would have been before the calendar change:
“The annual festival was held on or about the 4th of July (St. Ulric’s Day), and consisted of a popular pilgrimage to the well at Colwell and dressing it with flowers. This ‘Bridal of Colwell’ is no longer remembered, but it is probable its observance may have been transferred to the ‘Borewell’ in the same district, a sulphur spring at which the local ‘hoppin’ is still held at the Sunday next after July 4th.”
Thus Peter Binnall and Madeline Hope Dodds in the 1941 -1944 in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 4th series record that:
“Once called the ‘Bridal of Colwell’, but now ‘Coley’s Well’. It is the only well in Northumberland connected with the custom of well-dressing.”
The custom would appear to have been similar to Spaw Sunday when a certain day was chosen for visiting the well, when the waters were auspiciously more powerful and as a result a social event would develop around it. Interestingly, it appears to have been associated with a significant local history event:
“By the Middle Ages a traditional celebration of one of the wells had been established. This celebration, during which the well was blessed and decorated with flowers, was known as The Colwell Bridal and was held around 4th July on St Ulrich’s day. It was the object of popular pilgrimage and, on one such day in 1534, the good knight Sir Thomas Dacre seized three of the infamous Charlton clan who had travelled many miles to attend the Bridal. The Charltons had attacked Tarset Castle eight years earlier, burnt it and dispatched Sir Ralph Fenwick with his 80 horsemen out of North Tynedale. Their apprehension at the Colwell Bridal not only created local excitement, but also went down in history.”
Why this custom ceased is unclear, perhaps the water failed or the landowner denied access but it would have appeared to have moved to another well called the Bore well, which I shall cover in another future post. Of the Coley Well it still exists. It is noted by a low stone wall which encloses it on three sides and gives access for a large number of individuals and cows (!) suggesting it was indeed constructed for this function. The water flows from one side of the chamber and forms a very muddy pool, but a rectangular basin set into the ground can be seen, however a modern brick building nearby doubtlessly taps the spring.
Of the three other wells very little seems to been recorded other than their names in italics on the early OS map. Pricky’s Well is enclosed in a concrete structure and although flows considerably there is little old remaining and nothing appears noted about its name or traditions other than it was a copious spring. The final well of the three which lay in a line is the Robin Hood’s Well. This is an interesting named site and although modern Robin Hood devotees may visit the area to see the site of the famed Prince of Thieves tree (now sadly gone) few would visit this. But does it have a true association with the outlaw? Probably not, I would suggest that it more likely records an elemental and indeed the springhead, the most undeveloped of all, is very evocative of mysterious water beings. It arises to fill a boggy hole with a single stone to mark it. Again little is know of it but from the pipe leading off it it still has a use.
Springs and wells of the South Downs by Bruce Osbourne Source New Series Issue 6 (Summer 1998)
Shoreham – The Magic Cave TQ 213054
On the A 283 approximately 100 metres north of the Worthing-Shoreham railway bridge, near the town centre, is the site of a lost grotto containing a chalybeate spring in the former Swiss Gardens. In the second half of the 19th century Shoreham by Sea was a popular tourist resort for day trippers and holiday makers. One venue for the pleasure seekers was the renowned Swiss Gardens. They were opened in 1838 by James Britton Bailey, a local ship builder. The Gardens and Assembly Rooms quickly became popular. The success was further enhanced when the Gardens were sold to a Mr Goodchild in 1863. A whole range of leisure activities were on offer including boating on the lakes, rifle shooting, bowls, fishing, dancing etc. Everything was contained in the taste-fully laid out gardens which included a chalybeate spring. A grotto containing a chalybeate spring surrounded by fragrant roses and overflowing with sweet smelling honeysuckle and other odiferous plants and shrubs lay in a secluded part of the garden, the en-trance to the grotto being guarded by large effigies of those legendary British gi-ants, Gog and Magog; cleverly apt perhaps, as these huge guardians of the overgrown entrance to this ‘magic cave’ were supposed to be the wicked daughters of the Emperor Diocletian, who were captured and kept chained and hidden by Brutte. However, if the visitor baulked at the thought of entering the grotto it could at least be externally viewed to some extent from the pictur-esque ‘Bridge of Steps’ spanning the stream. Close by, those who wished could pass through a low door covered with more mystical characters to consult with the discreet and esoteric ‘Lady of the Oracle’ – but only between 11.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. In the 1890s the Gardens changed hands several times. By 1903 the Gardens had gained a bad reputation and were not the place to be seen in. Eventually they closed in 1905. Today the area is still identifiable as a lake and gardens behind the Swiss Gardens public house. The smaller of the two lakes is now gone and a large part of what was once the gardens is now a modern housing development. The grotto has disappeared together with the spring. References: Sharp R, 1992, ‘The Swiss Gardens, Shoreham by Sea’, Sussex Industrial History, Issue 22, Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society, pp.2-8.
Willingdon – Bone Well TQ 588021
On the side of the road through the village of Willingdon is the Bone Well or Wish Hill Pump. Erected in 1880, the building incorporates cows’ knuckle bones set in flints and is the only example of such decoration in Sussex. Other buildings incorporating bones can be found in such places as Cley, Norfolk. Originally the panels were filled completely with bones but have largely been replaced with flints over time. The present bones came from the village slaughterhouse and include both metacarpals and metatarsals coming from the feet of the fore and hind legs respectively. Bones of both male and female animals were used. The pump is located on the junction of the Lower Chalk and Upper Greensand where a spring rises. The water, besides being collected in the traditional buckets, has also been collected frequently in bottles. The water which flowed from the pump also fed nearby watercress beds, the stream eventually flowing to Hampden Park about one mile away. The pump is sited on what was once the dipping hole spring. There are varying accounts of how bones came to be associated with the spring before the erection of the present pump house in 1880. A box of ephemera, some of which were over 100 years old came to light in the loft of the former home of Augustus Alfred Haylock, once headmaster of the village school. An item detailing the pump read: Visitors passing through Willingdon no doubt have noticed the ‘Bone Pump House’ [the 1880 structure]. In the early part of the eighteenth century a couple resided in a cottage [since demolished] behind the present pump house. The wife sold soup made from ox-heels and used the bones to build a well in her garden.
In 1880 William Broderick Thomas Esq had built the pump house, which he presented to the village. In its gable were the initials and the date, constructed from sheep’s knuckle bones. Others were employed to adorn the walls at each side, all arranged in tiers to complete this unique structure (Vine 1978, pp. 70-71). It was noted by Mr Haylock that the provider of the report was the great-great-grandson of the couple who lived in the cottage and who once made the ox-heel soup. An alternative variation of the legend, supplied by Lady Willingdon, is that an old woman once lived near the dell in Willingdon. She collected knuckle bones of sheep which were acquired from local butchers. In time she had collected sufficient to build a well and eventually a well house. Whichever of the above legends is true, when the new well house was built in 1880, cows’ knuckle bones were collected from the local slaughterhouse to perpetuate the use of bones in the structure. The bone-built walls rise to about three quarters of the total wall height, above this there being open timberwork supporting a tiled gabled roof. The building was lined with Minton blue- and yellow-glazed bricks with a D-shaped trough to collect the water. Col. William Broderick Thomas, mentioned above, was born in 1811 and died in 1898. He was the brother of Freeman Thomas and a successful landscape gardener. His initials once appeared in the front gable together with the date of construction. ‘The Townlands’ was his local address but he also held property in London. Today several nearby names testify to the once-important water source. ‘Spring Cottage’ exists above and opposite the pump, and ‘The Well Acres’ is a local house name derived from nearby field names.
References: Stevens P. 1988, Willingdon Village Pump’, Sussex Archaeological Collections V, 126, pp. 253-4. Vine W. J. 1978, Old Willingdon, Webb and Read, pp. 70-71.
Severed Heads and Sacred Waters – Anne Ross (illus. R.W. Feachem) Source Issue 5 Spring 1998 part two
The River Thames gets its name from the Celtic Tamesis, “the Dark One”, probably the name of a goddess, because rivers seem to have largely been thought of as being feminine by the Celts. This is interesting because Adamnan, biographer of Saint Columba, mentions a river in Scotland called, in Latin, Nigra Dea, “Black Goddess” (Watson 1926, 50). Thus, here the river is the goddess, and so, we may suppose, was the Thames. There is, in fact, a whole series of “black goddess” rivers in the Scottish Highlands. The Nigra Dea of Lochaber is the modem River Lochaidh. So the name of the Thames itself points to an early belief in its dark powers which led, no doubt, to propitiatory sacrifice. It may not be irrelevant here to mention the fact that the ancient Irish goddess Macha, whose form was often that of a crow or a raven, had human heads offered up to her as her due, usually heads taken in battle. These were known as Mesrad Machae, “Macha’s Mast”.
We began by looking at heads and boundaries and this theme recurs when we consider the heads taken from Thames and Walbrook. The Walbrook, “Brook of the Welsh”, a former tributary of the Thames, shared with the larger river an amazing offering of human heads. Moreover, the Walbrook was a boundary river. Many human skulls, most of Iron-Age date, were found in the Walbrook, some forty-eight of which are recorded. They showed no sign of injury and, predictably, they were usually the skulls of men in the prime of their lives, under forty years of age. Human skulls were constantly found when the River Thames was dredged in the nineteenth century, often together with important finds of metalwork, mostly weapons, some of stunning workmanship. One location near Battersea Bridge, famous for its finds of Celtic metalwork, was actually known as a Celtic Golgotha in the nineteenth century (Cuming 1857, 238). Because of the fine quality and richness of the metalwork the extraordinary number of human heads tended to be disregarded. Cuming wrote a paper entitled “On the Discovery of Celtic Crania in the Vicinity of London” -a fine title – but a year later his attention was diverted to the stunning Battersea shield, and he seems to have lost interest in the skulls.
A large number of skulls was then found in the river at Strand-on-the-Green, but this hardly received mention. People virtually forgot about the skulls. Then it came to be realised that the great quantities of metalwork in rivers and lakes in Britain and Europe must be there due to ritual and offering, rather than being casual losses, which is how they were usually described: but no mention seems really to have been made of the human remains that were often found with them. It seems that the discovery of Lindow Man, and the female head found in the same level of the Moss, touched off a new interest in the London skulls. Could these, after all, owe their prolific presence in the waters to ritual, it was asked. In the same light we must consider the skulls at Wookey Hole (Ross 1992, 142-3), and other such finds in watery places.
Forty-eight skulls have been recovered from the Walbrook, and others from Kew and Hammersmith. It is extremely fortunate that about 300 skulls taken from the Thames still survive today in museum collections; and this enquiry has set in motion a new interest in skull collections generally, and in the find-spots. A great many of the Thames skulls were found between Richmond and Mortlake. The same area has yielded major finds of Bronze Age and Iron Age metalwork. Some of the skulls are dated to the late Bronze Age, which demonstrates a convincing continuity of ritual and practice of the cult of the head in connection with watery places. Of particular significance is the fact that rarely if ever were the skulls found together with other human remains. The skull itself, then, is the part that was offered. The continuity of this practice did not end with the coming of the Roman period: there are a few skulls dated to the post-Roman, Saxon, era.
Noteworthy are the ten human skulls and six mandibles which were found in the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames. It is interesting to note that Ekwall suggests, on etymological grounds, that Lea is likely to mean “the river of the god Lugus”. The Lea, then, flows into the “Dark One”, and surely some ancient and profound cult is indicated. Is it by chance, I wonder, that Bran’s head was brought to Londinium as a talisman, and buried in a place where many springs flow, as an apotropaic emblem, in order to keep all invaders away from Ynys Prydein, “The Island of Britain”? It is to Ireland we must turn now for some further dramatic evidence for the cult of the head, as attested by archaeology. The excavation of a destroyed late Iron Age burial at Kiltullagh, Ballyglass, Co. Mayo, has yielded further evidence of the cult of the human head (Cribbin et. al. Emania 1 f.). On the borders of Mayo and Roscommon a quarry opened up in 1991 destroyed important evidence but incidentally revealed some interesting features.
The margins of the quarry remained undisturbed, and there were indications that there had been a large mound before operations had begun. The date is in the late Iron Age, and a large stone that was present would seem perhaps to have served as a boundary market An almost identical mound lies undisturbed on the Roscommon side of the county boundary, and excavation of this may cast light on what remains of the destroyed Mayo site. The place was used for burials of some kind, but its particular interest for us here is that it would seem once again to cast light on Iron Age cult practice with regard to the human head. About seventy fragments of human bone were examined, but the singular feature is that they were for the most part skull bones and mandible fragments. The bones were fragmented and had dearly been damaged by the quarrying. Fragments of skulls both male and female were present, seeming to belong to some four people. The fragment of the mandible of a young child, aged about three to five years, was recovered more recently. There is no evidence that the burials were contained in any form of cist, or that they were articulated. Most interesting to us are the skull fragments. It is unlikely that conventional burial was carried out at this site, the amount of bone other than skulls and mandibles being far less than would be expected with a normal burial of up to five people. Some kind of ritual deposit associated with the head cult is indicated. It is now apposite to consider a closely similar skull burial found recently at Raffin, Co. Meath (Raftery 1994, 80). Here an internal bank surrounds circular houses of both Bronze Age and Iron Age date, itself an interesting point. Here also was a standing stone at the base of which were buried a human skull and some animal bones. The skull fragment produced a date of 100 B.C. to A.D. 30. The Bronze Age houses would certainly favour an earlier date for some at least of the site; but Irish sites tended to have a long continuity where ritual activity or superstitious regard kept their significance alive. The Kiltullagh bones included those of pig, cattle, and others. These skull burials beneath standing stones bring to mind such parallels in Gaul in the Roman period as, for example, an altar dedicated to the Celtic Mars at Apta Julia – Apt, Vaucluse. This was found to have a duster of some eight skulls buried beneath it (Ross 1992, 99). The skull at kaffin would seem to have been that of an adult male. Raftery describes the site as an Iron Age hilltop of suggested ritual character (Raftery 1994, 80). There may perhaps have been a monument here comparable in function to the great royal centres. The skull was actually in a pit, the position of which was marked by a squat, naturally-rounded boulder. Emain Macha – Navan Fort – situated on a hilltop near Armagh, is perhaps the most important ritual site in Europe (•ynn 1991, 41 f). The head of a Barbary ape discovered there may perhaps indicate both the worship of the head and the special place accorded to an exotic species. Its presence has led to much speculation about how and why it came to be there. The name of a lough at the foot of the hill – Loughnashade – means, I think, “Lough of the Treasures”. And treasures it did indeed contain. Many have been recovered from it in the past: four magnificent sheet-bronze trumpets have been preserved from a dredging of 1798; it is not in question that these were ritually deposited. The recovery of human skulls also from the lough makes parallels with the Thames and other British rivers, and their caches of skulls and metelwork, very dose indeed. Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century, mentions a lakeside festival in Gaul during which votive offerings were thrown into the lake.
We are not told whether these included human skulls.
Another very unusual ritual site forms part of this fascinating Navan complex. It is known as the King’s Stables, and consists of an artificial pool sunk deep into the ground. The evidence shows that this had been constructed for ritual purposes between 1200 and 600 B.C. A layer of charcoal was discovered when a hole was dug during a fencing operation in 1987. The monument survives in reasonably good condition for a small site, and for one of such a great age. Many large prehistoric monuments in the district have been entirely destroyed, and much of value doubtless lost for all time. The artificial pool has a fearsome guardian in the form of a dragon-like creature, and fear of this guardian may have served to preserve the site. There is a tradition that a passage leads from Loughnashade to the King’s Stables. The artificial pond is always full of water, and folk tradition has it that the kings of Ulster “loing ago” used to water their horses there, and wash their chariots. One day a local character decided to drain away the water. He began to cut at the bank and “to destroy its fine round shape”. He had hardly started, however, when the monster appeared, and you could hardly see the water because of its great size. He was never the same again, and was confined to bed for some time after this encounter (Emania 2, 20). Of great interest in this context is the deliberate deposition in the King’s Stables pool of part of a human skull. The skull, seemingly that of a young male adult, showed signs of cutting after the individual had died. It was the facial part of the skull that had been deposited, forming a kind of mask. We may compare this with the skull from Gournay (Lynn 1991, 40).
Similar ritual treatment of skulls is known from other Irish sites. For example, a skull found below the crannog at Lagore, thought to be that of an adult female, lacked the lower mandible, as did a skull found in open water mud to the west of the Late Bronze Age occupation at Moynagh Lough, Co. Meath. The skull of the Barbary ape found at Emain Macha may have been all that was buried there, and may have served as some kind of talisman as did human heads. The Thames skulls and other heads often show a similar ritual treatment. And these skulls, too, were predominantly those of adult males. Skull deposits from Ballinderry raise interesting questions about the use of wet places – which recall Lindow Moss – and it is clear that there is some significant evidence for settlement in such locations in the Late Bronze Age. At the same time there is clearly a continuity of the long-established pattern of using rivers, lakes and bogs, as well as wells and deep shafts, as places for ritual deposits (Lynn, Emania 9, 1991: 40, 41).
These are only some of the seemingly ritual deposits and treatment of heads in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age as attested by archaeology. I have spent some time in discussing these in order to establish a clear and striking antiquity in Europe for the use of the severed human head in Celtic religion, and therefore in Druidic practice. The theme of the prophetic head is well known, and it is interesting to note that one of the incantations for fore-knowledge used by the Druids and esoteric poets of Ireland was called Dichetal di chennaib, “incantation by means of heads”.
As the classics imply, the setting up of human heads in forts and dwellings secured protection – most probably by inspiring fear in the enemy. Even today, in parts of what was Celtic Brigantia (“The High One”, the eponymous goddess of the region; modern Brigid), heads are regarded as bringing good luck or keeping bad luck at bay. The protective fossilised skull of a young woman at Bettiscombe, Dorset, has been discussed in this issue, and there are others in various parts of the country, accredited with apotropaic powers. Stoner heads are often believed to have a potency similar to that of the real skull, and much superstition still attaches to them.
I have already discussed individual wells associated with a head or heads in publications which are detailed in the bibliography. Space does not permit me to recapitulate them all here. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are studded with place-names connecting the human head with some well or source, ford or lake, and the same applies to Ireland. Wales, too, as we have seen, has its own share of these; and here, as in the other Celtic countries, the stories and lives of the numerous Celtic saints contain legends concerning the origin of some spring or well through the power of their decapitated heads.
Perhaps the finest well in this country dating from the Roman period, and containing evidence of skull-worship is that at Carrawburgh, in Northumberland (Allason-Jones and Mckay, 1985). Named Coventina’s Well after the presiding goddess – who was also venerated on the Continent – excavation yielded many sacred objects which had been cast into or suspended above the well. From our point of view, the human skull is the most telling. Whether it was first used for purposes of healing, or of prophecy, or of protection -or any or all of these – we shall never know. Its mere presence at the bottom of a hallowed well in a remote part of Roman Britain adds important evidence to the archaic and deeply rooted association of severed heads with sacred waters.
Finally, I want briefly to tell again the story of my own experience of a severed head and a sacred spring, in the Highlands of Scotland. Like so many wells in this wild terrain, the well was known as Tobar a’Chinn, “The Well of the Head”. The skull is famed for its ability to cure epilepsy, of which there was a great deal in the Highlands in the past. The power of the skull could only operate, however, with the potent waters of a mountain spring. The sacred water must be drunk from the human skull, and so the cure was effected. This well and its healing properties were renowned the Highlands, and people came from the Islands as well as the mainland to obtain the cure.
The well is situated on a mountain-side in a wild region of Wester Ross. I visited the township some years ago, and talked with the guardian of the skull and the well – for guardians are an essential and archaic feature of such healing sites. The skull is allegedly that of a suicide, and was found lying on the ground some two hundred years ago, according to the tradition. The “wise men” of the community recognised that it would have powers to heal epilepsy, skulls of suicides allegedly being very potent in this respect. The waters of the spring were already accredited with healing powers, and it was somehow recognised that the well and the skull together would have magical powers; but always to be invoked in the name of the Trinity. The skull was taken up to the well, and was kept in a small stone dst at its side: and there it remains to this day. The guardian, a local healer, was appointed, and the position has remained in the same family to the present day. The well must not be visited for any purpose other than the healing of epileptics: it is the deeply-rooted belief that the powers of the water are not inexhaustible, and must be expended with great care. The skull, too, must only be used in the healing ritual -otherwise it must lie hidden in its stone container. The healing takes place after the last rays of the sun have left the mountain and before first dawn. The climb, and the descent after the ritual has been performed, must be made in silence. I was privileged to visit the well in the dead of night with the guardian, who explained the ritual to me in detail. He told me that after the healing was completed, and the sacred waters had been drunk from the skull, he “put the prohibitions” on the patient. This is a very archaic feature; it occurs in Old Irish in the form of the word geis, (pl. gessi), meaning a tabu, a prohibition, a ritual constraint. Geas is the word still used in Scottish Gaelic, and it is this that the guardian of the well used. It was a rare and awe-inspiring experience, one which seemed to take me right back into the Celtic Iron Age. It gave me a completely new insight into these ancient beliefs and healing rites, all explained in the archaic Gaelic language. I shall always be profoundly grateful to the guardian who so generously instructed me in this sensitive tradition.
Summary and Conclusion The ancient Celtic belief in the powers of the severed human head was widespread and deeply rooted; and it was so firmly embedded in the Celtic subconscious that convincing traces of the ancient veneration accorded to the skull are still extant in the present day. The evidence for the antiquity of this cult is found in archaeological contexts from the Bronze Age onwards, and it can even be traced to the Neolithic in some areas which were to become Celtic at a later period. The head was believed to survive death, and to be capable of speech on occasion, and of movement and poetic utterance (Ross 1992, 94 f). Its powers were those of healing, prophecy and fore-knowledge, fertility and protection, according to traditions down the ages. Skulls were often treated in singular ways as in the case of the Irish skulls, and we are unlikely ever to know the full significance of the small parts of human heads which are often found, clearly deliberately deposited, in archaeological contexts. We briefly considered the important group of temples and sanctuaries in southeast France, dating to centuries immediately before the Roman occupation. Here mediterranean influence is attested by the stone temple buildings and the sculpted representations of gods and heroes in the local limestone, for example. Sophistication here combines with potent evidence both for head-hunting and head-worship, and the connection of heads with sacred springs and waters. Today we can still witness faint but cogent traces of this ancient cult, with its roots in Druidism and Celtic tribal society; and we may say that the symbol of the human head, especially in association with sacred waters, truly epitomises Celtic religion. When paganism officially gave way to Christianity, there was a natural fusion of god head and the Godhead. The head of the Welsh Bran the Blessed perhaps symbolises this most poignantly (Jones and Jones, 1977, 49), a head buried in Londinium where the cult of the Iron Age Celts is attested by a dramatic assemblage of human skulls deposited in the sacred waters of the River Thames and its tributaries. Future dredging of rivers, and excavations of Iron Age sites, will no doubt bring to light further evidence of these ancient cults, and perhaps add welcome details to what we can reconstruct of ritual and offering, Druidism, and the nature of the gods invoked.
Bibliography
Allason-Jones, L. and McKay, B. 1985. Coventina’s Well. Chesters Museum.
Benoit, Fernand. 1955. L’Art Primitif Mediterraneen de la Vallee du Rhone. Gap: Editions ORPHYR.
Bradley, R. and Gordon, K. 1988. “Human Skulls from the River Thames, their dating and significance”. Antiquity 62: 503-9.
Bromwich, R. 1961, 1978, 1991. Trioedd Ynys Prydein. The Welsh Triads. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. (New edition in preparation.)
Brunaux, J.L. 1988. The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites, Sanctuaries. London: Seaby.
Cooney, G. and Grogan, E. 1991. “An Archaeological Solution to the ‘Irish’ Problem”. Emania 9: 33-43.11
Cribbin, G., McCormick, F., Robinson, M.E. and Shimwell, D. 1994. “A Destroyed Late Iron Age Burial from Kiltullagh”. Emania 12: 61 f.
Cuming, H.S. 1857. “On the Discovery of Celtic Crania in the Vicinity of London”. Journal of the British Archaeological Association 13: 237-40.
Ekwall, E. 1936. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. London: Oxford University Press.
Hickey, H. 1976. Images of Stone. Belfast: Blackstaff.
Jones, G. and Jones, T. 1977. The Mabinogion. London: Dent.
Koch, J.T. and Carey, J. 1994. The Celtic Heroic Age. Massachussetts: Von Kamecke.
Megaw, R. and Megaw, V. 1989. Celtic Art London: Thames and Hudson.
Lynn, C.J. 1991. “A Burnt Layer beside the King’s Stables”. Emania 9: 33-43.
O’Rahilly, C. (ed.). 1976. Tain Bo Cuailnge (Recension 1). Dublin. Piggott, S. 1968. The Druids London: Thames and Hudson.
Raftery, B. 1994. Pagan Celtic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson.
Ross, Anne. 1962. “Severed Heads in Wells: an Aspect of the Well Cult”. Scottish Studies 6, part 1: 31-48.
– 1967, 1972. Pagan Celtic Britain. London: Routledge. London: Constable. – 1976. The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands. Batsford.
Rybova, A. and Soudsky, B. 1962. Libenice. Prague. Salviot, E 1979. Glanum Paris. Stead, I, Bourke J, and Brothwell, D, 1986. Lindow Man, The Body in the Bog. London: British Museum Publications.
Tierney, J. J. 1960. “The Celtic Ethnography of Posidoneus.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 60, c.
Watson, W.J. 1926. The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood.
See also: Emania 2 (1987), for articles on Emain Macha and Loughnashade.
The wells of East Coker by Abigail Shepherd (Source New series No 3 Spring 1995)
The parish of Easter Coker, near Yeovil, in Somerset, is fortunate to have a wealth of springs and sources. In the 1920s two springs, at Burton in the north of the parish (5332 1384) and in Coker Court Park to the south (5335 1233), met the needs of the majority of homes. There are stories that during the first world war village men patrolled these springs to guard against German spies poisoning the water. A few homes, notably at Foxholes and on Lodge Hill, are still supplied by spring water.
Sadly, some of these springs and streams have been piped underground. At the hamlet of Nash the spring is called Peter’s Hole (5387 1375; can anyone help explain this name?) The stream runs from the source through the now vanished hamlet of Sheepslake and into North Coker Park, a 19th century creation, where the water emerges as an overgrown pond behind iron railings then dips back underground where it used to meet a hydraulic ram that lifted the water up into tanks in the roof of North Coker House.
Going back in time, the Roman villa site at East Coker is situated close to a spring (5472 1393) that rises to the north of Dunnock’s Lane and trickles down to the cottages at Patchlake. A footpath flows this little stream along its course to Paviotts Mill in Coker Moor. Across the moor near Davole Farm (on Private land: 5524 1211) is what appears to be a little dew pond, but may be a spring called the Beauty spring (B.A Hackwell The story of our village 1953 p6.) rising there, close to the road from Sutton Bingham, an ealden herepath or ‘old army road’ according to a 9th century charter.
In the village of East Coker itself the spring in Coker Court Park (see above) runs down from an overgrown reservoir where villagers could once collect water from a pump, and through the broken remains of a stone-edged pond that might once have supplied the oce for an ice house in a field at the other end of the track across the park. The stream then meanders round to west wells where, in the front garden of one of these cottages, there is a medieval stone washing place which can be seen from the road. The stream then runs along the roadside past the Helyar Arms pub, before doubling back and making its way across the moor.
In Coker Moor itself is ne of the most impressive wells in the parish, known as Blackwells (5497 1302), where the rusty-coloured water of this chalybeate spring bubbles to the surface to fill a small stone surrounded pond or drinking place for cattle, built by a local farmer. Blackwells water is said to be good for eyes. It can be approached from the telephone kiosk in North Coker where you go down a rough track called Moor Lane, past the sewage works until you reach a gate to a large field called Moor Field. Walk around the edge of the field in either direction and you will come to Blackwells in the far corner. The farmer allows access to this field and it is a popular place for villagers to walk.
In the far south-western corner of the parish of East Coker is the hamlet of Lyatts where a beautiful spring constantly flows out of a hedge bank (5233 1184) past a few withies and an impromptu pond, before tumbling out and under the road through Lyatts, running downhill towards Hardington in the next parish. Whilst not prepossessing to look at with its yellow plastic pipe, the boundary of the parish of East Coker cuts across to this little spring which must have been important feature in the landscape. The place-name Lyatts is believed to be all that remains of the Saxon hundred of ‘Liet/Licget’ meaning ‘lych-gate’. The spring is easily reached as it lies along a footpath, only a stone’s throw from the gate at Lyatts.
Two springs at Primrose Hill on the western edge of the parish (5292 1280) feed a little stream that runs down to Halves Lane. It is on this hillside, up above Primrose Hill Farm, that the holywell field names occur on a 1819 map of the parish. In amongst these are Bridles mead and Bridles orchard – in 1770 the former is listed as ‘Bridewells mead’. I have heard that earlier in this century there was even a spring rising in the road here. A footpath takes you across the fields, close to these sources, and follows the stream for part of the way downhill to Halves Lane. If the name Bridewells is original (and not, say, the name of the farmer who owned the field), it is interesting to note that in the Middle Ages, Bride or Bridget was a popular saint in Somerset, with a cult centring on Glastonbury; and thus he wells may have been dedicated to her. Or it might be a dim memory of the pagan goddess Briga.
At the foot of Primrose Hill, and a good place to finish this description, is the Holy well itself, which can be found in the hamlet of Holywell, on the boundary between East and West Coker (5295 1325) Here the spring rises to the north side of the Foresters Arms pub, next to the footpath leading across to Burton. Dom Ethelbert Horne visited the well while preparing his book on the holy wells of Somerset, and described it in the following words:
“The well itself is a plentiful spring, the water coming through a pipe and falling between some great stones. These are squared and dressed stones, some of them being large steps, and they may have been part of a building in former times. No tradition, that I could find, existed in the neighbourhood as to why this place is called Holywell, nor were the waters considered ‘good for eyes’. Indeed, when I asked an old lady on the spot, who had come to dip up some of the water if it was good for anything on particular she replied ‘Yes for making tea!’ She added that across the moor was a spring the water for which was ‘good for the eyes’. The directions for finding this well were so vague that I did not make the search.”
(Ethelbert Horne Somerset holy wells, London 1923, p35)
The other well mentioned to Dom Ethelbert by the old lady was the one known as Blackwells. The wells of East Coker are modest ones – both in their scale and their seclusion – but deserve the rediscovery of a visitor’s or a pilgrims’ eye
originally published in Source New Series 3 Spring 1995
Mysterious creatures of springs and wells – phantoms horses and coaches!
A possibly un-investigated sub-genre associated with holy wells and varied water bodies are the coach and horse phantom. The phenomena is wide spread. And in lieu of a longer elaboration I thought I’d introduce some examples here and please feel free to add other examples in the comments. The furthest south one I have found is association with the Trent Barrow Spring, in Dorset Marianne Daccombe in her 1935 Dorset Up Along and Down Along states:
“One dark and stormy night a coach, horses, driver and passengers plunged into this pit and disappeared, leaving no trace behind. But passers-by along the road may still hear, in stormy weather, the sound of galloping horses and wailing voices borne by them on the wind”.
However, the majority appear to be in the eastern side of England which is not surprising as these were and in some cases are boggy, desolate marshland areas which clearly were treacherous in olden times.
In Lincolnshire, the Brant Broughton Quakers (1977) note a site in their history of the village. This was found on the corner near the allotments on Clay road was a deep pond called Holy well pond or All well or Allwells. They note that
it was haunted by a coach and horses which plunged into its waters. I was informed by Mrs Lyon, the church warden that the pond was filled in at least before the writing of the above book.
In Lincolnshire, most noted site is Madam’s Well or Ma’am’s Well. Wild (1901) notes that this was a blow hole which Charles Hope’s 1893 Legendary lore of Holy wells describes as a deep circular pit, the water of which rises to the level of the surface, but never overflows and such it is considered bottomless by the superstitious. Rev John Wild’s 1901 book on Tetney states that they were connected to the Antipodes, and relates the story which gave the site its name:
“In one of these ponds a legend relates how a great lady together with her coach and four was swallowed bodily and never seen again. It is yet called Madam’s blowhole”
Wild (1901) also tells how:
“a dark object was seen which was found to be a man’s hat…when the man was retrieved belonging to it….my horse and gig are down below.”
Norfolk has the greatest amount. Near Thetford a coach and four went off the road and all the occupants were drowned in Balor’s Pit on Caddor’s Hill, which they now haunt. On the right-hand side of the road from Thetford, just before reaching Swaffham, is a place called Bride’s Pit, after a fathomless pool once to be seen there. The name was actually a corruption of Bird’s Pit, but tradition says that a couple returning home from their wedding in a horse drawn coach plunged into the pond one dark night, and the bride was drowned. An alternative origin is that it may be a memory of the Celtic Goddess, Brede or the early saint St Bride.
The picturesquely named Lily Pit was found on the main road from Gorleston to Beccles (A143), hides a more ominous tradition, that it was haunted by a phantom. The story states that at midnight a phantom pony and trap used to thunder along the road and disappear into the water. What this phantom is confusingly differs! One tradition states the phantom was a mail-coach missed the road one night and careered into the pit, vanishing forever. This may be a man named James Keable who lost in the fog fell into the pool in 1888 his body never being recovered. Or a farm-hand eloped with his master’s daughter, who fell into the pool and drowned. He so racked with guilt later hung himself on a nearby tree. This may be the a man from Gorleston who went mad after his only daughter was lost in the pool, and so hung himself from an oak tree which stood there into the 1930s. There is an account in this Youtube video.
A Kent field trip – holy wells of Goudhurst
The Lady Magdalene’s Well
Back in the 1990s I was busily researching for my Holy Wells and Healing Springs of Kent and was searching for two notable wells which existed on private grounds. Back in those well searching days there were really only three ways to find out if a site existed beyond someone else’s account and the appropriate map. These were – writing, turn up on spec and linked to the later try to see the well by doing a bit of exploring. As both laid firmly on private ground (and one a school) it seemed prudent to enact the first option. So I wrote and fortunately both were forthcoming so I arranged a day to explore them.
Lady Magdalene’s Well (TQ 707 333) is in fact one of a number of chalybeate springs which surround Combwell Priory, probably named after Mary. Although Combwell itself is a ‘modern’ building, it is constructed around the old priory, pieces of which are recognisable in its fabric. Nearby under a mound the un-excavated remains of other sections of the priory. Little is clear concerning its history. The earliest reference to the well is on a 1622 Combwell Estate map and Combwell Priory was granted a fair on St Mary Magdalene’s Day in 1226-7 so it is doubtlessly an ancient source.
Only a few years before my visit, the site was a boggy area. When I visited it is tanked and enclosed in modern brickwork (although there would appear to be signs of an earlier, probably Victorian structure). The overflow from the spring emerges as a stream a few feet from this structure. There is little here to excite the antiquarian. Mrs. Fehler, of Combwell Priory, informed me that it was used as drinking water at the house, although she suspected its quality, having a blue tinge. The carved bust of a woman, said to be a cook who foiled a Roundhead attack is of interest at the Priory. Mrs. Fehler refers to this as ‘The Combwell.’ Could it have been associated with the well? Perhaps the story was later constructed around the object to explain it.
The Lady’s Well
The Lady’s Well (TQ 341 721) is noted in blue italics on the map, with the words chalybeate spring beneath. It was located within the private Bedgebury School Estate. Although the name suggests a dedication to Our Lady, it is according to local historian Mr. Bachelor, its origin appears to be secular, deriving from Viscountess Beresford who resided at Bedgebury. To add to the confusion the well is now dedicated to a past Bedgebury School Headmistress. A plaque at the well records this. Yet despite this it is a pleasing site, the spring arising in a distinctive square sandstone well house, found nestling in a Rhododendron dell below the main building.
This structure, Romanesque in style, is six foot high, with water emerging through a pipe in its centre to fill a semi-circular basin set at its base. The structure’s condition suggests that it is of no great age and would correspond with early Nineteenth Century. Whether the water was taken for its waters, being a noted for its iron rich water like Tunbridge wells, is unknown. Since visiting the site is no longer enclosed in the grounds of the school as it closed in 2006 and the building is currently derelict.
Interestingly there was another chalybeate spring in the wider grounds of the school I did not visit and two more in the woods nearby – I did fail to visit these but no history or tradition was apparently recorded concerning these.
In search of rag wells: Cornish rag wells a photo archive
The clootie tree at St Euny’s Well
![Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]](https://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/somerights20.gif)
Cloutie tree near Madron Well
The cloutie tree near Madron Well
The cloutie tree near Madron Well
Sancreed Holy Well
St Credan’s Well, Sancreed
In search of rag wells: The Lincolnshire rag well cluster part 2
Last month I introduced the rag wells associated with Lincolnshire we now move southwards to explore the other sites.
The Seven Springs
At the significantly named Hemswell are the seven springs apparently rise from the spring wells and one of these is dedicated to St Helen’s Well (SK 932 911). The site has an eerie but not unquiet atmosphere. The proximity of a local stone called the Devil’s pulpit may help this of course. It is a large approximately six foot high piece of sandstone under which a small spring arises. This Ian Thompson (1999) Lincolnshire Wells and Springs notes local opinion thought was St. Helen’s, he said it tasted sweeten than the other waters (a fact that I cannot testify as the spring has appeared to have almost dried up the year I went). Peter Binnall (1845) in his theories on eye wells notes that the spring wells were regarded as possessing curative powers and rags were hung on the surrounding bushes. The dedication of St Helen is an interesting one of course and just within the main area. Jeremy Harte’s 2008 English Holy Wells suggests that the name is spurious and that Ethel Rudkin (1936) Lincolnshire Folklore does not refer to it as such, however in support of the view I had no problem locally detecting the well using this name in the village (incidentally Harte makes an error referring to the springs as Aisthorpe Springs, these are clearly another site). There was supposed to be a chapel or church associated with the site, of which there is no trace or record. There was no evidence of any rags on any of the trees and the only thing hanging was a rope for a tyre swing!
Not far away and still surviving are the Aisthorpe springs (SK 956 899) a curative spring and a rag well, despite what Thompson (1999) notes is not now incorporated into a sewage farm, although this is nearby. The spring arises with some force near by the footpath which passes towards the sewage farm and has a separate flow from that of the plant. The spring flows from a pipe beneath some thorn bushes, sadly without any sign of rags.
To the east is Holton cum Beckering were to the east of Holton Hall was a Rag Well according to Lincolnshire Notes and Queries which was said to have had some medicinal qualities, however recent correspondence with local vicar has shown that there is now no local knowledge of this well. The only evidence was a local name for a field to the south of the town known as Well Walk. There is a spring fed pool in churchyard but no traditions are given concerning this. It is possible perhaps that this is the same site as the Wishing Well at Nettleton.
Here at Nettleton, the Wishing well which is records as being half mile from church, east of the grange on land belonging to Holton Park hence the possible confusion with above. Eliza Gutch and Mabel Peacock (1908) Lincolnshire County Folklore note that:
“It was famous for its curative virtues, and thither many of the afflicted, until very recently, if not now, were wont to make a pilgrimage. A thorn tree grew over the well, which used to be covered with votive offerings, chiefly bits of rag, the understood condition to any benefit being that whoever partook of the water should ‘leave something.’ The thorn tree, however, is now cut down.”
Again no local people could determine the existence of this site and nothing is marked on maps.
Kingerby Spa (TF 045 914) whose name first appears in 1824 as the site of a Chalybeate spring might seem an unusual place for a rag well but it is an old site. In Lincolnshire notes and queries state that large numbers of coins dating back to Elizabeth I, were dredged from the pool. Records tell that in 1900, pins and coins were found nearby, and the thorn rags were full of rags. Mr Wilkinson states that it became popular in Victorian times as a place to go for the healing waters and he had seen a photo of the spring with strips of cloth fastened to the bushes surrounding the spring but could not locate it. He believed it fell out of popularity after the turn of the century, and suggested that the landowner was against people tramping over his land to reach it. However, as late as the 1990s, that the then owner was thinking of selling the waters. Mr. Wilkinson also noted that last time he saw the spa it resembled a pipe discharging into a dyke. This is at variance to Pastscape, which notes that the site consists of a small oval shaped isolated pool which has three courses of narrow brickwork forming a semi-circular rim with another brick course and a coping stone set into the side of the hollow suggesting that was a well house. Despite appearing to exist as a small pool on both the current O/S and Google maps; recent field work failed to reveal it. The site would appear to have either dried up or purposely filled in. Field train channels were nearby. This was despite being described on the parish map outside the church, although interestingly this revealed itself to be in another location to that noted on the map so maybe I was pixy led.
The last traditional site is the chalybeate Blind Well (TF 085 208) on the edge to Bourne Wood is the furthest south rag well. However, there are no signs of rags now. Its water was used to cure eye complaints and sold in Bourne Market. It is now rather neglected being rather weed filled and untidy surrounded by a rather ugly wooden frame.
Thus completes the traditional rag wells but as I have eluded to before what is interesting is the site called Lud’s Well (TF 176 937) at Stainton Le Vale. The evocative site is a spring which arises in a small cave like structure and fills a small pool. When I saw it in the summer it was a bit dry but apparently it forms a small waterfall according to local sources. I learnt of the site from Thompson’s 1999 work and when visited did not see any sign of ribbons. Now this is the county’s only rag well. This can be seen from this screenshot from a recent video visiting the site. Why?
Rags near Lud’s Well image from Steve Fuller’s Vimeo video
The origin of the name may suggest why. Although it is believed to come from O.E Hlud meaning ‘loud’ others prefer to believe it is derived from Celtic deity Lud, this however is unlikely. Thus it seems very likely that the site has been adopted by the local pagan community who have adopted the attaching of ribbons as a pagan gesture.
So why. Such a cluster as far east as it is as possible to go puts in question the idea that the custom is strongly Celtic in origin perhaps. So why in Lincolnshire. A theory I discuss in my working thesis on the work is that the custom was brought by gypsy communities who had a stronghold in the county. However, why these particular springs is unclear perhaps like Winterton, Hemswell, Aisthorpe, Healing they were close to main roads – we cannot state this in the case of the lost sites of course.
What is interesting is how quickly the custom died out in the county and one wonders whether this is correlated by the reduction in gypsy numbers as well.
In search of rag wells: The Lincolnshire rag well cluster part 1
In April I examined a well know rag well but as research for my Holy wells and Healing Springs of Lincolnshire regards the county is a hot bed for rag wells. In this first part I will examine those found in the far north of the county
Perhaps the oldest account of such a rag well is that associated with the Holy Well at Winterton not far from the ragged springs at Healing. Winterton’s Holy Well (SE 944 178) was undoubtedly an ancient one, recorded as the fieldnames as 13th Century Haliuel, c.1200, Haliwelle Daile, early 13th century and gives its name to Holy Well Dale on road to Appleby. The earliest account by a Mr Joseph Fowler, of Winterton, who was born in the year 1791, remembered people who had seen rags on the bushes near. Andrew (1836) notes:
“There are excellent springs about Winterton, one of which, lying in a field eastward of the town, called “the Holy-well Dale”, has the property of petrifying vegetable matter”
Edward Peacock, 1877), A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire, English Dialect Society 15 which describes it as accounted useful in the cure of many sorts of sickness. Fowler (1908) notes that:
“an old lady of eighty-one years tells me of how people frequented that spring, hung fragments of linen or cloth or ribbon on the hedge or bushes near, and took its healing water away in bottles.”
Charles Edward Hope (1893) in his Legendary Lore of Holy Wells takes a number of sources, some hitherto unknown. These are:
“WINTERTON : HOLY WELL DALE. There is a spring at Holy Well Dale, near Winterton, in North Lincolnshire, formerly celebrated for its healing properties; and the bushes around used to be hung with rags.
Sadly this is a site which despite still being marked on the current OS has apparently been recently removed in the last 15 years by drainage. The fate of the well emphasizes the need for preservation of such sites. In a report by Pastscape, they note that Mr. Herring, a local farmer indicated this spring on the ground at and said it ran following rain. They noted more modern piped spring nearby probably accounts for the mainly dry state of the old spring. It is interesting that in Hilary Healey (1995a), Lincolnshire holy wells in Lincs. P & P 19 pp. 3–6. they record the attachment of a rag to a nearby signpost.
© Copyright Richard Croft
Nearer to Scunthorpe at Bottesford is a site which has been discussed before on this blog by Ian Thompson under his examination of the Templar’s Bath nearby. Near the church is St John’s Well, a grade II listed approximately five foot high stone and brick well house, whose spring arises in the garden above it and flows towards the wall where the well is situated. Its masonry is mainly of Victorian date with possible older stones. A fairly recent gate is set across the entry but one can still peer inside to see the water inside in its sunken trough, although the actual well which is said to be eight feet deep is inaccessible in the garden of St. John’s House as noted. Locally I have heard it called St. John’s Ragwell but no authority can justify it but I would suggest that as its rag well and not clootie well it is probably authentic.
One of the most intriguing rag well is to be found to the north east of the village of Utterby along Holywell Lane. It is simply called the Holy Well (TF 317 937) and here it is said that coins were dropped and it was formerly a rag-well of great repute for its medicinal qualities. Peacock (1895) notes quoting White’s directory that:
“The surrounding bushes used to be tufted over with tatters left by people who visited it to benefit by its waters. Three or four years ago, if not later, remnants of clothing might still be seen on the shrubs. Persons yet living have taken their children to this well, and, after sprinkling them with water, have dropped a penny into it for good luck.”
This would appear to be the same site which Cordeaux, J., (1876), Anatolian folk-lore, Notes & Queries describes as a rag well near Great Cotes, Ulceby.
The springs appear on the first 6” O/S map as Holy Well (chalybeate) and remained until 1951 edition, when it disappeared. Thorogold and Yates in the Shell Guide of Lincolnshire (1965) describe it as a holy well full of sticks in a spinney. A correspondent to Collins (2011) called Steve, notes of the site:
“Finding it amongst the dense thorn bushes is another thing, dowsing helped me locate it back in the early 1990’s. I cleared out a 6 foot deep hollow many leaves and cans etc. and it was very dry. I returned about 6 months later to find it full of bubbling red rich water….”
When researching the site for Holy wells and healing springs of Lincolnshire I could not find any evidence of a site. Indeed the site according to the Utterby Heritage group is now is dry and rather overgrown, hidden and no longer traceable. A return visit in early December always a good time to search for holy wells enabled me to get into the thicket and despite some promising hollows I could not claim to have found the exact site. However, clearly someone in the Utterby group know the exact location as they stated there would be a plan to restore the site at some time in the future.
In the next instalment we shall travel southwards and explore why rag wells are prevalent in Lincolnshire
An abecedary of Sacred springs of the world: Some holy wells of Russia
Russia boasts hundreds of holy wells or Святой колодец however their history is a troubled one and many suffered from the atheist Soviet regime – pilgrimages were banned, chapels closed and holy wells filled in and destroyed. However, since the fall of the USSR Russia is reviving and restoring these ancient water sources and in this post I thought it would be of interest to followers.
One such example is the Polovinka holy well in the Venerovsky district. The site was associated with the finding of a miraculous icon of the holy martyr Paraskeva Friday, a hermit who named herself after the Lord’s passion day and was persecuted by emperor Diocletian in Roman Iconium in Asia Minor. This was found on the shore of a lake and the transferred to the church in Voznesenka but when the next day the people went to see the icon it was not there but back at the lake. This happened several times. Seen as a sign, the local people dug a well on its bank and over it a chapel and placed the icon within it. The water was blessed and taken by the pilgrims. Large number of pilgrims came and a convent was even established there.
The loss of the site
Then came the Soviets who in 1979 burnt down the church and destroyed the holy well chapel, dismantling the foundation and burying the well. Despite this the memory had not been erased. Priests came with their people in secret to the site where the spring despite the burial still flowed. Over time people became bolder with their visits and then in 1995, three years after the collapse of USSR, remains were found and a restoration of the well was planned. Soon followers with their priests from Tatarsk, Chanov, Chistoozerny and Vengerovo visited. And recently a roof with a dome and cross were placed back over the well.
The pilgrimage
Hieromonk Dimitry in the Novosibirsk Diocesan Herald (2006, No. 1) describes the pilgrimage of remembrance of Paraskeva Friday, the 9th Friday of Easter:
“Usually visiting pilgrims meet in the morning in the village of Voznesenka. Here at the site of the burnt church a prayer service is served. Then local residents join the pilgrims, after which everyone gets on the buses and goes to Polovinka. Before one kilometer, people go out and with a procession of the cross, with icons and banners, move to the holy well. To meet them come those who came here earlier. A prayer service with water consecration is served at the well and the akathist to the holy martyr Paraskeva is read. Sanctified well water is bottled to all present. Then – a common meal in nature, and in good weather – and pouring fresh, icy water, which relieves fatigue and gives new strength. Everyone’s mood on this day is festive.”
The white well
A similar site is that of the White Well. This too is linked to a miracle working Icon, this time of Nikola Zaraysky. It is said that in 1225 the spring arose when the icon was rested on the ground on its journey from Korsun to Prince Fydor Yurievich being carried by Eustathius a priest. Then in the following centuries the seven centuries, the inhabitants of Zaraysk celebrate the day of St. Nicholas as a religious Orthodox holiday and after visiting the icon in the Cathedral a procession would form of those visiting the spring head. Its waters were said to be good for those suffering mental and physical suffering. This custom like above died out in the days of the USSR. Then in 2002 a new wooden chapel, called Nikolskaya, was built above the spring with stairs down to the springhead. A special spring filled plunge bath was constructed Now every year on August 11, processions have returned with people from all over Russia coming for its waters.
New wells for old
The restorations of Russia’s sacred wells continues and new holy wells constructed. In Birobidgan, a new holy well has been built in association with St. Innocent Convent on its 220th anniversary a well will be built and opened.
A report states that:
“The territory of the monastery was chosen for the first source of holy water in the Birobidzhan diocese because the water in the territory of the village of Razdolnya is very qualitative in terms of physico-chemical indicators,” said Bishop Efrem of Birobidzhan and Kuldur. – It is located close to the surface of the earth – the wells of local residents are usually four to five meters deep.”
The process involved:
“The rite of consecration “treasure” was held in front of the relics of St. Innocent, which on this occasion were brought from the Annunciation Cathedral, where they are stored permanently. Prayer was held by Vladyka Ephraim, who asked the Lord to give the water “sweet and tasty, satisfied to the needy, and harmless to the reception.”
This new wall will have concrete walls and an hexagonal wooden frame over it with a dome.
Russia restoring and creating holy wells in equal measure. A superb place for the religious tourist
holyandhealingwells 