The ancient, holy and healing wells of Bodmin Part four: St Petroc’s Well

The last notable well is the town is that found in the local park. This is what is now called St Petroc’s Well has gone through a number of name changes. In 1635 it was called St Guron’s well and in 1639 St Jerome’s Well although this may itself derive from a mispronouncation of the Guron! Thus there appears to have been some confusion with the site by the church and their names appear to have been interposed. Hence many of the early records such as Quiller-Couch miss it.

However, the Petroc association is supported by the well arising in the lands of a monastery said to have been founded by St. Petroc in the 6th century. Tanner records British monks following the rule of St. Benedict about 936. The community existed until about 1124 when it was re-formed for Augustinian Canons. Priory House was built on the site and remains today at the edge of the park.

 

 

A marvelous discovery

A wooden statue of St. Mary was actually concealed inside the well to protect it from Cromwell’s troops. Incredibly it was only found at the very beginning of the twentieth century. After minor repairs and redecoration at Buckfast Abbey, it was returned to Bodmin where it is found in St Mary’s church, whether it was originally from there or the monastery is unknown.

The well today

The well arises in a stone lined chamber at the end of a streamlet beyond the stone channel edge. It is often covered in water as it was nearly completely cover when a flood alleviation system was established in 2001 by the Environment Agency such that only around 30% of the stone structure is visible. A secret mysterious place in a modern park.

 

 

The mysterious Powdonnet Well, Cumbria

Powdonnet Well is a curious site, a large clear and deep pool lined by a wall of rocks, full of spring water beside a fast flowing stream and cloaked in the shadow of a copse of trees marked by a modern monolith which records its name, the relic of a Millennium cleaning up, although other sources suggest 1995! It is an evocative site, but its history is challenging.

The pool lays on the edge of the small settlement of Morland. The church it is claimed lays upon a pagan site and boasted a shrine within. The relics of St Laurence were laid in 666AD in a stone altar within giving the Saxon church a religious focus. This was apparently lost at the Reformation but local tradition records that it was buried somewhere in the churchyard.

Powdonnet derives from the Irish-Gaelic “pow’ meaning pool and donnet referring to a saint called Donat meaning the ‘Pool of St Donat’. Smith in his Place-names of Westmorland 1967 cites that the earliest form was in 1637 as Powdonet and is not mentioned as Powdonnet Well until 1859.

 

Who was St Donat?

St Donat was a little known French saint and there are dedications to him in Wales such as  St Donats castle,in Glamorgan the church guide referring to:

“The church (St Donats) had originally been dedicated to the Welsh, St.Gwerydd, but in Norman times the dedication had been changed to St. Donat, or St. Dunwydd, as it is written in Welsh.

He was a ninth-century saint who is said to have been born in Ireland and who later became Bishop of Florence. For a long time he was very popular on the north coast of France as a patron saint of sailors.”

But how is this saint associated with a spring in Cumbria? This is particularly problematic as there are no local churches so dedicated nearby and the church does not share its dedication. However, it is possible that it records a Celtic dedication lost to the Anglo-Saxon expansion; the last relic of the saint’s association locally. Certainly, it is a primitive site one might well expect associate with the early baptism of a Celtic evangelist. Was this St Donat? What is more remarkable is that unlike many other well sites which have been enclosed in brick and stone, this site retains what it must have been like back in those early years.

Unusual happenings Mary smiles in the Ukraine Source Source New series No 1 Autumn 1994

From time immemorial, the Ukrainian nation has shown a tender and filial devotion towards the Mother of God. In 1037, the grand prince of Kiev, Yaroslas the Wise, consecrated his capital and his country to Mary, and thousands of churches, monasteries and chapels were placed under the protection of the Ma-donna. They sheltered hundreds of miraculous Icons. The Virgin is the Queen of the Ukraine. After the occupation of the western territo-ries of the Ukraine in the course of the Second World War, in March 1946 the Russians mar-tyred the whole Ukrainian Catholic Church, by blood and the sword. Those who remained lived on in the catacombs. Driven to fury by the active and passive resistance of the Ukrainian nation, they unleashed a new attack against the centres of the Marian cult, and destroyed many venerated images of Our Lady in the Ukraine. However, for a long time they did not dare to attack the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Zarvanytzia. They had closed the sanctuary, but they had not touched the icon. So the local inhabitants spontaneously decided to keep watch over the holy image, day and night. In the summer of 1957, a detachment of armed police entered the village, invaded the sanctuary, and despite the lively opposition of the inhabitants, carried off the icon by force. The church bells were rung to summon the help of neighbouring villages but it was too late. However, underneath the chapel of Zarvan-ytzia there was a source of water known as “the well”. On the same day that the icon was confiscated by the authorities, an absolutely identical image of Our Lady was seen reflected in this spring. Everyone saw the face of the Madonna in the water, marked with the deepest sadness. The news of this miracle rapidly spread throughout the whole of the Ukraine, and thousands of pilgrirhs began to pour into Zarvanytzia from all parts of the country. The authorities were disturbed by this enormous upsurge of faith in the people, and despatched a commission of enquiry to the shrine from Kiev. The replica of the miraculous icon re-appeared in the water of the spring, and the members of the official commission of enquiry were com-pelled to testify publicly that they had seen the reflection of the said icon on the water.

During the summer of 1958 a second commis-sion of enquiry was sent to the shrine, this time direct from Moscow. Not long after this visit, the Communist authorities ad-vised the people that the icon would be restored to its place. The pilgrimages of the faithful became even more numerous. Eventually, on 14 October 1958, the long-awaited day arrived when the Soviet authorities returned the icon to the people. The Ukrainians re-installed it in its place of honour in the church of Zarvanytzia, and the Catholics considered this restitution of the icon as a great victory of their faith which the Madonna confirmed by a prodigy. This information was sent to us through the Ukrainian emigration centres of Europe and America. We know some people in England and Philadelphia who have in their possession pho-tographs, sent to them directly from Zarvan-ytzia, which were taken on 14 October 1958. (B.Kurilas, C.SS.R., Notre Dame des Temps Nouveaux )

Extracted from Miracle of Mao; 1988. By kind permission of Augustine Publishing Company, Chulmleigh, Devon.lX18 711L.

St Arild’s Hymn – Tristan Gray Hulse and Wendy Maddox. Source Issue 5 (Spring 1998)

The following article is a further update in the completing of the Source archive it is copied verbatim but I have inserted a link to the original article so it makes more sense!

Jane Bradshaw’s article seems to be the most comprehensive account of St Arild and her cultus which has appeared to date.

St Arilda of Oldbury on Severn, Gloucestershire

Even the Bollandists were unable to uncover much of the evidence presented here (cf. Victor de Buck, “De S. Arilda”, Acta Sanctorum, Octobris, tomus xiii, Parisiis 1883, pp. 450-1). The only additional witness to the cult we have been able to discover is a few lines of verse from a late-medieval English poem on Gloucester Abbey (quoted by S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher, Lives of the British Saints, vol. i, London 1907, p. 169), but this simply reiterates the information contained in the hymn and in Leland. This poem refers to the “Legion” or Legendary of the saint, which is presumably a now-lost Life which Leland was able to consult at Gloucester – probably no more substantial than the lessons read in the cathedral at Matins on the feast of St Arild. If we were to permit ourselves a few speculations about St Arild and her well, in addition to those made by Jane Bradshaw, we could say that – comparing Arild’s residual legend with other fuller and better-known ones – when the saint’s tradition was still intact, it said that her holy well sprang up where her head fell at the time of her martyrdom. This was of course a widely popular hagiographical motif. If however the present Oldbury on Severn tradition, as reported by Mrs Bradshaw, has faithfully preserved the content of the medieval original, to the effect that Arild lived by the well during her life, and its waters flowed with her blood (the alga) after her decapitation, then this is a rare variant of martyrdom well traditions; indeed, in that the clotted “blood”of the saint is actually present in the form of the alga, as opposed to the more usual blood-staining caused by chalybeate waters, in either instance St

Arild’s Well may actually be unique. (It might also be well to note the possibility that the alga itself was responsible for Arild being culted as a martyr, in presence in the water suggesting the violent death of woman who in reality may simply have been a he who resided by the well, and who was culted locally after her death.) By a similar analogy, we might suggest that the temptations to sin are in some way comparable to to motif of the three trials, or tests, or sanctions, which are found in a variety of forms in the legends of numbers (“Celtic” saints, such as Eiliwedd/ Almedha an Dwynwen (Baring-Gould and Fisher, op. cit., vol. i London 1908, pp. 419-20, 388). Lastly, we could suggest that St Arild’s cult declined into obscurity at Gloucester following the burial there of the murdered Edward II who was popularly venerated as a martyr. This would be a contributing reason why so little is now known

The medieval Latin poem In Arildis memoria is not strictly a “hymn” (note that the rhythm and line-length varies from stanza to stanza), but an oratio rythmica, a prayer in verse followed by a collect, a type of private devotion common in the middle ages (though it is also just possible that it was originally written or subsequently used as the sequence for the Mass for St Arild’s feast). The Latin text was first printed in the Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Transactions 1904, pp. 208-9 As the Oldbury hymn is a paraphrase rather than a strict translation, we print here the original Latin text with a new translation by Wendy Maddox. This permits us, for instance, to see that stanza 4 contains a specific reference to Arild defending her chastity under attack. (Other such “martyrs for chastity”, dying for what we now perceive as a woman’s rights over her own body, are encountered in British traditions – St Winifred, for instance. Stripped of later cultic and traditional accretions, such as miraculously-appearing wells and permanent bloodstains, and taking into account social conditions at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions and settlement, seen in this light these stories of “martyrdoms” are only too likely to have been reflections of factual events.) We would like to thank Mrs Maddox for permitting us to publish her work, which appears in print here for the first time. – Ed.)

In Arildis memoria Plaude, mater ecclesia, Nos ad eius preconia Vocum demus officia. Hec se Christum dedicavit In quo trinum hostem stravit Hec se prorsus abnegavit Et cum Deo ambulavit. Virgo prudens, sponsa Christi, Per quem mundo illusistit decorem induistiam amicta lumine.

Carne munda, mente pura, Certans contra carnis iura Nunquam sponso caritura, In celesti culmine. Gentem finesque Gloucestre Illustrant tue relique. Succurre nostre miserie. Ut per te vivamus in requie.

O Arildis, O huius cenobii, Advocatrix et spes solatii, Ad te, mater, clamamus filii Fac nos consortes materni gaudii. Christo tuo pro nobis loquere, Fac in eius odore currere, Fac nos sponsum tuum agnoscere In quem delectant angeli prospicere. Amen.

Deus, qui virginitatem beate Arildis dignitate martyrii decorasti, quique locum istum sacris eiusdem reliquie illustrasti; precibus ipsius da nobis indulgentiam, et loco isti perpetuam securitatem, per Dominum (nostrum lesum Christum, qui tecum vivat et regnat per omnia saecula saeculoruml. Amen.

Translated it reads:

Acclaim O Mother Church, Our voices raised in duteous salute, Hymning at last, Arildis’ memory

Awoved to Christ, The three fold foe o’ertherthrown, Self set at nought, She walked with God

Wise virgin, Christ’s betrothed, Holding the world in scorn, You put on grace, enrobed in light

With body chaste and pure of mind, Struggling ‘against fleshy lawa, Never in human love to be held dear in highest heaven,

Gloucester its people and its lands, Are lighted by thy bones, Succour our misery, that we through thee May live in peace,

O Arildis, of our monastery the advocate, And hope of balm, Mother to the thy children cry to share Maternal Joy,

Speak to thy Christ on our behalf, Make us in His sweet aura, acknowledge thy betrothed, through whom the chosen Angels look down.

God, who hast adorned virginity by the blessed honour of Arildis’ martyrdom, and hast illumined that region with her sacred remains, grant to us pardon through her prayers, and to that place eternal safety: through Our Lord…Amen.

The sacred wells of Stenness

A few years back I was fortunate to travel around Orkney and of course I found time to find one of Orkney’s most famous holy well and had a look for another – which I did not find.

Situated by the side of a minor road in Stenness is a site which has been named Bigswell, however despite the name this neither refers to its size or indeed the well. It is believed that Bigswell derives from the Old Norse bygg meaning barley and vollr meaning field. It would appear that the name has been conveniently attached to the well but does not describe it!

 

Traditions at the Bigswell

There were two days when the water of the well was thought to be most potent: beltaine around the 1^st of May and Midsummer around the 21^st June. It was said to be used for those suffering from epilepsy or mental disorders when they would be thrown into the well and then tied to a post nearby and left overnight being repeated if necessary. For other conditions, a certain ritual would need to be observed if the cure was to be effective. That would be to go diesel, or sunwise around the well before drinking from the water and the visiting a nearby standing stone called the Odin Stone which was holed. Here too lovers would swear an Odin Oath after drinking the water. The oath has been sadly forgotten.

The Odin stone

The stone was 140 metres from the well-known standing stones of Stenness and was destroyed in December 1814 because the new owner, a Captain W. Mackay was annoyed at the number of people who would visit the stones destroyed this and was on the way to toppling those at Stenness. Local people were not happy and there were attempts to destroy his holdings. Fortunately, he was legally stopped but not before  the Odin Stone was good. The last fragment being a holed piece which was discovered in the 1940s being used for a horse driven mill. Unfortunately, it was a victim of progress. When modernisation came the stone could not be moved and so the owners son unaware of its origin broke it to smithereens, with his father angerly proclaiming:

“You had no damned business to break that stone: that was the Stone o’ Odin that came from Barnhouse!”

Returning to the well, there has been some discussion of which spring is which. For confusing is that there are two springs which could the said spring. One lies on slopping ground at Upper Bigswell and the other in the marsh in the Bigswell. Generally it is the site which is on the old road between Stenness and Orphir that is the said well. The well is now enclosed in a rather functional stone slab well house which has a large slab on the top. It appears designed to give those accessing the water shelter. The  water itself  flowing into a square chamber in the centre.

Searching for the Haley Hole

Unfortunately, I was less successful trying to find the Haley Hole which is recorded in Hellihole road which was a route to the well near Brownstown. Covered with a well house but no sign could be seen. Despite still being used in the early 20^th century with even folklorist Ernest Marwick stating that his father took water when he was ill. The name from the Old Norse ‘heilagr’ meaning ‘Holy’ was doubtlessly dedicated to some Orcadian saint long forgotten!

 

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 Holy Wells of Holywell, Oxford (part one): The Well of Saints Winifred Source Issue 6 (Summer 1998) & Margaret – David Stone. Source

We continue the updating of the Source new series archive with this very useful article by David Stone. David and I corresponded during the 1990s and I was aware he was working towards a guide to the holy wells of Oxfordshire. What happened to that I am unaware and I have subsequently lost contact over the years.

Holywell Parish is aptly named, since it contains no fewer than four of Oxford’s eight holy wells. There has been a fair amount of scholastic dispute over the years as to exactly which well is the Holy Well which gives the parish its name. For instance, Anthony Wood, a 17th century historian, thought it was the well beside the manor,’ as did Plot in the 1700s2 (though Wood misunderstood him), while a map made in 1578 marks Crowell as “Holiwell”.3 The remaining two have also been marked as Holy Well on various maps – see below. Personally, I suspect they were all holy wells and the parish was named for them all. Whether any one is older than the others and had been in use for longer will probably never be known. Although the well of SS. Winifred and Margaret is known to have been in use since at least Anglo Saxon times, there is no evidence to suggest the others are any less ancient. James Ingram also shared this opinion. Although he felt SS. Winifred and Margaret’s Well was the holy well, he wrote, “all these wells were much esteemed by the inhabitants, and it was found useful to hold them sacred.”4 Whichever well, if any is the holy well, the parish has been so named for centuries. The Domesday Book says of the parish, “The church of St Peter of Oxford holds of Robert d’Oilly two hides in Haliwelle.”5 Therefore the parish has been known as Holywell since at least 1086. However, Haliwelle is derived from Old English “halig weille” – holy well or stream6 so the area had been known thus for an indeterminable time before Domesday.

WELL OF SAINTS WINIFRED AND MARGARET (SP520066) This well is in a private garden between Holywell manor and church and I obtained permission to view it. It was simply a rectangular hole covered by an ornamental grille, alive with heart’s tongue fern. Following further research I discovered that the hole was actually the entrance to an underground chamber. Returning to the well I lifted the grille and at once saw what I had previously missed – that it was a chamber with a set of moss covered wooden steps leading down into it. The chamber was quite small, only about 12ft. north-south, 6ft. east-west and about 4ft.6ins. high (very approximately). The floor was mud. The whole place was dark, cool and damp. I saw a little toad down there and was told that several live in the chamber. The walls were built of a combination of brick, concrete blocks and stone, testimony to the work that has taken place there – more of which later.

The well itself is filled in now but it is easily possible to see where it once was. A square block of stone or concrete (it was dark down there!) sits in the north west corner with smaller stones on top. Resting on these is an ancient-looking stone cylinder about 2ft. in diameter -though a little wider at the base – and about 1ft. tall. Looking into this, it is possible to see the earth and rubbish that is filling the well which actually goes down into the square block at the bottom. The cylindrical stone on the top was proclaimed to be of Anglo Saxon origin by architect C.C. Rolfe, who discovered it in 1896. He mentioned that it was “monolithic and very rudely made” and that it was “the work of the old Anchorites who lived on the spot in Anglo Saxon times.”7

 

The stone was set upon three unworked stones in Rolfe’s time and he said in a letter to the Warder of Merton College that “the mystical numbers 1, 3 and 5 were important factors in all the Anglo Saxon churchmen did. Here appears to be a singular confirmation of it – the one stone set rudely but designedly upon the three.”8 These Anchorites, according to Wood, who was writing in general, “lived in a place, joining to a church built around with a wall having a hole therein for light (and a hole underneath for their ordure). They were commonly frequented by people that had nothing to do, who would bring them food and perhaps be converted to holiness by their speeches.” Wood further comments, with regard to Holywell, “we may safely say that this place was so called from certain holy men or hermits that lived here.”‘” Although we cannot place an exact date on when the Anchorites lived there, the stone well-head and the name Halywell give testimony to this well being venerated since at least Anglo Saxon times. Veneration at this well continued into the advanced Middle Ages for in 1488, Dr. Fitzjames, Warder of Merton College, built a well house over it of freestone with his coat of arms above the door.”

It is not certain when this house was demolished though it was probably during the Civil War when the one above Crowell was destroyed.” Unlike some of the Oxford wells, this one seems to have escaped the persecution of the Reformation, but it appears to have lost its public appeal, at least temporarily, for in 1678, it had become a place to keep bottled ale cool in the summer.” However, it is possible that this apparent abuse was a “front” for its real use: Wood, who wrote in the mid to late 1600s, Plot who wrote in the early 1700s and Hearne, who was writing diaries in 1718, all said that the well was in use by many people,” who obtained cures,” and brought money to the manor.” It was interesting to see this theory aired in a previous issue of Source where it was suggested that during the Reformation when Catholicism and religious shrines fell victim to persecution, Catholics re-dedicated existing holy wells and other places for use as private shrines.17 A number of points suggest this may have been the case with the Well of Saints Winifred and Margaret. First, it has already been shown to have been in use during the Reformation period yet also seemed to have been used for mundane purposes, thus masking its real use. Second, the Napier family who were in residence during the midst of the Reformation period, between 1558-1671, are known to have been Catholics and to have used the manor as a refuge for persecuted fellows.” There is or was a priest hole in the house.” Third, a cold bath connected to the well came to light when the manor stopped being used as a residence and became a workhouse in 1765.20 Bathing is often part of the ritual use of holy wells and this may have been installed as part of this shrine. The fact that it was unknown while people were in residence perhaps indicates that it had been deliberately kept hidden. Fourth, according to this theory, the dedication to Saint Winifred was a common dedication during the Reformation for this purpose. However, this is conjecture on my part since the earliest reference I have found to it is 183721 and it is noticeably absent in Wood’s book from the 1660s where he always refers to it as “the well beside the manor” or in similar terms. The bath associated with the well continued to be used into the 1820s and attracted such notables as Captain Wood and (later-to-become) Cardinal Newman. Captain Wood is reported as bathing as early as 5.00am “for fear that someone would bathe before him and take the chill off the water.”22 In both instances these gentlemen reported improved constitutions but the account makes no record of specific cures. Cures connected with this well are rather vague. Plot mentioned the water was used for the eyes “and in some other cases” and described it as having a “kind of active friction! that “invites the patient to rub on the tersive water”.” He also said it was good for curing distempers.24 Wood says that “it might be beneficial in the curing of wounds or aches and the like” and that he found “persons yearly relieved by these wholesome waters”.25 The well itself appears forgotten at this time. By 1837 even the pool was rarely visited.26 In 1862, the manor was leased to the sisterhood of John from Clewer who used the manor as a penitentiary dedicated to the social reform of fallen women.27 They had a chapel built on the site of the well, though access to the pool was still possible down some steps from the chapel nave.” The well by this time was lost though the sisters held that it ‘had existed on the site of the chape1.29 The Sister Superior maintained that it had been under the chapel alter and said she had been told this by the Rev. Canon Noel Freeling, who wanted the location preserved, as it had once been a place of pilgrimage.” That might have been the end of the story but in 1896, the sisters commissioned an extension to the chapel and in the process, the well was rediscovered. C.C.Rolfe, the architect in charge wrote that the chamber was 20ft.3ins. E-W and llft.11ins. N-S. (The present chamber is much smaller on the E-W axis.) The ashlaring (square stone for building or pavements) was in very good condition and its character led him to the conclusion that this was much older than 1488 when Dr. Fitzjames had built the well house over it.31 He also observed that no ashlaring joined it to the manor house so the two were originally separate. The workmen had been instructed to report if a well was found but, “as the walls of the existing chapel stood on the well walls, which were taken to its foundation, the matter did not come to our attention until after, a quantity of earth and building rubbish had been thrown in. However, as no actual damage had been done, it was decided to leave the rubbish and earth as a protective barrier while the work was done.”32 The intention to unblock the well and perform a thorough examination remains, to this day unfulfilled. It is not yet clear when this chapel was demolished though it was probably around 1935 by which time the manor had been leased to Balliol College. Drains were laid and the well was rediscovered for the second time. It is unclear whether the walls which reduced the chamber size were built during these works or those of 1896.

Today, the only sign of the chapel is in the garden wall a few feet south of the entrance to the well chamber. This wall has window mouldings containing geometrical tracery which demonstrates it was the south wall of the chapel. Now dry, blocked up and largely forgotten, the well is a sad echo of its once proud bearing.

References:

1.Wood, Anthony, Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford. Composed 1661-6 with additional footnotes written in later years. Reprinted with further footnotes, updates and comments 1889 by Oxford Historical Society Vol.1, p.388.

2.Plot,R, Natural History of Oxfordshire, 1705. Re.pub. Paul PB Minet, 1972, p.49.

3.Agas’ Map of Oxford,1578.

4.Ingram, James, Memorials of Oxford, pub. Charles Tilt, 1837, Vol.3, Holywell Parish, p.8.

5.Memorandum of Holywell Manor, printed by John Johnson, Oxford University Press,1932, (written 1920s) p.3.

6.Gelling, Place Names of Oxfordshire, pub. Cambridge University Press, 1953, p.36.

7.Durham, Nancy, The Mystery of the Holy Well, Friends of Holywell Cemetery Newsletter, 1990. 8.Durham, ibid.

9.Wood, op.cit., vol.2 p.503.

10.Wood, op.cit., void. p.389.

11.Ibid., pp.389-90.

12.Ibid., p.386.

13.Ibid., p.390.

14.Ingram, op.cit., pp.7-8.

15.Plot, op.cit., p49.

16 Memorandum op. cit., p.6.

19.Ingram, op.cit., p149.

20.Memorandum, op. cit., p.7.

21.Ingram, op.cit., p.7.

22.Wood op. cit.,vol.1, p.616.

23.Plot, op. cit., p.149.

24.Ibid., p.365.

25.Wood, op.cit.,vol.1, p.389.

26.Ingram, op.cit., p.8.

27.Holywell Parish Register 1854-1900, Introduction.

28.Information from County Sites & Monuments Record.

29.Rolfe, C.C., Letter in “Proceedings and Excursions of the Oxford Architectural and History Society,” 1896, p.10. 30.Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Nov.21, 1890, p.6.

31.Rolfe, op.cit., p.111.

32.Ibid., p.111.

From whence the healing stream doth flow – Holybourne’s holy bourne

When is a holy well or spring a holy well or not? That is always a challenging question. Holybourne is such. This did not prevent that first great magpie of the study Charles Hope in his 1893 Legendary lore of Holy wells including in his work, stating that:

“The Holybourne is supplied by a spring from the chalk near the upper green sand outcrop. The spring has an elevation of about 350ft., and is close to the churchyard. Formally the water issued from its natural spring almost opposite the west door of the church, and about 20 yds. from it; when the churchyard was enlarged, the spring and its stream were culverted for about 30 or 40 yds. to the pond”.

The Holybournes inclusion into a discussion of holy wells is a curious one as one might ask where is the spring? Janet and Colin Bord include the site in their seminal 1985 Sacred Waters perhaps because of the paucity of actual holy wells in the county. Although research would show there are more than the book suggested, indeed James Rattue was doing sterling work to discover this in the old series of Source as no doubt the authors were compiling their work! Apologetically the authors state:

“Springs at Holybourne. There is not a holy well as such at Holybourne, but the church is sited close to, and on top of, several springs which feed a pond by the side of the church, which in turn is the source of the Holy Bourne, the stream which the village is named, It is clear that thus was a holy place even before the church was started late in the eleventh century, and its origin as site for Christian worship goes back to the seventh century when missionaries from Canterbury. We can speculate that even earlier this was a sacred place. In much later times, the water was used to cure eye problems.”

Of course there is a lot of speculation here but the stream being called Holy Bourne is very suggestive that its source would be culted. It is generally agreed that the name derives from Old English Haligburna from halig for holy.  Certainly, the church supports the idea stating in the information at it that it arises beneath the chancel, although another source says opposite the west door of the church, and refers to the water being good for eyes, but there appears to be no archaeology and finds. It has been suggested that the village was a Roman posting station called Vindomi being between the crossing of two Roman roads, Winchester to London and Silchester to Chichester. Perhaps there was a small Roman shrine at the site which is where the sacredness of the water begun. It is certainly evident that the church has been built here a fair way from the old Roman road and the village centre. The village of course, sitting on the old pilgrim path to Winchester and Canterbury, we cannot prove that the missionaries came here but it is very likely to have seen pilgrim visits. Today the site is a pleasant one, the pool is clear and bubbling and a culvert can be seen where the majority of spring water arises to the north. One just wished it could reveal its sacred secrets.

The Sacred Springs and Holy Wells of the St David’s Peninsula (part two) Source Issue 5 (Spring 1998) by Julie Trier

Continuing to update the Source New Series articles so finally a complete set is available digitally here is Julie Trier’s second piece on St David’s peninsula copied verbatim from the origin.

Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord: who turned the hard rock into pools of water, and the flint-stone into a springing well. — Ps. 114: 7-8.

THE voice of Christianity was next heard in the land of Demetia (Dyfed), its advent spanning a band of time, possibly AD 400-600. The early presence of the new religion in Dyfed is evidenced by inscribed memorial stones (Thomas 1994, 101-2). Numbers of these can be seen near St Davids, at St Nicholas’ church, Tremarchog, ten miles to the north. One commemorates a lady with the British name Toncetaca, perhaps the wife of an Irish or Irish-named Christian (Thomas 1994, 92-3). Two other stones with single-name inscriptions, now also in the church but found at nearby Llandridian, are probably dedicated to sixth-century priests, Llandridian having possibly been an early Christian enclosure (llan) or churchyard (Thomas 1994, 106). It is interesting to note here that near Llandridian, at Ffynnondridian Farm, is “the consecrated well which characterizes and gives its name to the spot” (Fenton 1903, 15; Jones 1992, 5, 214; see also Part One of this article: Source 4, 18). Llandridian has also been linked with the “wife” (or perhaps more likely, a monastic companion) of St Illtud (Doble 1971, 131). A further inscribed stone, now in the Carmarthen Museum but found near Narberth (Arberth), the ancient royal seat of Dyfed, records an early Christian king, Voteporix (Guotepir). Despite the memorial acclaiming him “Protector” and according him the epitaph of a holy man, it was Guotepir, together with the other four rulers of contemporary Britain, who was angrily denounced by St Gildas, “spokesman for the ideals of the monastic movement”, in his Ruin of Britain (c. 540), for perpetuating “the evils of the age” (Thomas 1994, 82-3, 89; Thomas 1993, 26-30). However, Guotepir’s father Aircol was known as “the Generous” (Lawhir) because he granted estates to the Church. Aircol’s close friend Amon Ddu was the father of St Samson, at one time abbot of Caldey Island (Ynys Byr), where a small monastery had already been founded c. 500 (Thomas 1994, 89-90, 74). The main Christian impetus arrived from the east. Small communities, probably reflecting the first great monasteries of south-east Wales, were established in Dyfed. Royal or well-born children like Samson, David and the later “saints” were educated in such centres (Thomas 1994, 91, 102, 106). They would then set out as missionaries, initially seeking to influence the loc kings. “Adoption of the Faith in royal and noble circl is likely to have preceded any more general conversio of the people” (Thomas 1994, 101, 90). When Christianity had succeeded in percolatin down through society, “ordinary” people may hay found that the simple lifestyle of the “saints”, their clos affinity with the natural world, together with the incarnational message, offered a spirituality that the \ could readily assimilate; its symbolism echoed mu that was already familiar to the pagani, the “country dwelling” Celts. “The most important heritage which Celti Christianity received from the old religion was th profound sense of the immanence of God in the world” “Every well-spring, wood and stone took on a mystic significance” (O”Malley 1992, 8, 4). The Christian Celts in Wales continued to regar pure clear flowing water as a sacred source an symbol of life and wholeness, inG Tudur Aled’ words, coel iechyd and irder byd – an “omen o health” and “the sap of the world” (Thomas 1993 98). It is therefore likely that pre-Christian sacred spring were adapted for Christian rites in Wales befor ecclesiastical councils repeatedly and unsuccessfull proscribed “well-worship” (Jones 1992, 22-3). However, “in this western end of Dyfed conversion to Christianity [was] neither instantaneou nor automatic”; society seemed to be in a state o “spiritual flux” (Thomas 1994, 90). As I described Part One, the chieftain Boia (of the Irish Deisi tribe wh settled the area c. 400: Thomas 1994, chapters 5-7 challenged David when the saint claimed possession o Vallis Rosina, the marshy valley where the cathedr now stands. The importance of this site with its druidi religious focus of hazel grove and sacred stream (“the heart of the pagan camp”: Jones 1992, 25) may have attracted the missionaries. From other regions we hear of similar confrontations and contests of power staged to prove the strength of the Christian God. These often centred upon renowned springs whose healing properties would then be attributed to and the well called after the saint. Alternately, the origin of some springs was ascribed “to the miraculous intervention of a saint” (Bord 1985, 20, 22, 96-104; Wade-Evans 1923, 102). In St David’s case, both his birth and baptism were said to be heralded by the sudden springing of water.

 

The Celtic saints in Wales normally chose to establish their cells and churches near both a river and a spring. It seems certain that the Christian holy men and women who settled by these sacred springs…took water from them to baptise their first converts, symbolically Christianizing them in the process (Thomas 1993, 94). Very little is known about baptism in the early Celtic churches (only one Celtic baptismal rite – by sprinkling of water, rather than by immersion – has survived, in the c. 800 Irish Stowe Missal). However, it is not unlikely that water from the holy wells was used for baptism, as we find so many remains of chapels, baptisteries and indeed existing churches built close to or even over wells (Bord 1986, 94; Jones 1992, 23-8). Francis Jones states that “twelve chapels were erected” around the St Davids peninsula. Of those that can be identified or recalled through historical records or place-names, an estimated seven or eight have well-spring associations. The majority of the old well-chapels have disappeared. Some fell into decay and were abandoned and a large number were deliberately destroyed during the Reformation…It is possible that some of the structures we now recognise as well-chambers may have been in the first instance well-chapels (Jones 1992, 26, 27 n. 26). This may have been the case at St Non’s Well.

St Non’s Well (SM 751244) The story of St Non and St David as it is now known has come from translations and adaptations of the Vita Davidis, originally composed in Latin by Rhigyfarch c. 1081, some five hundred years after St David’s death. It is believed to be “not a simple historical account of the life of the Saint, but a document containing contemporary political-ecclesiatical propaganda attempting to uphold and further the interests of the old Celtic ‘Church’ against the ever-increasing power of Rome” The details contain many hagiological and miraculous incidents, following the set plan to which all the medieval saints’ Lives were written – indeed, it is considered a prototype of many of the later Lives (Bowen 1983, 16-17). “Non or Nonita was thought to be the daughter of a local chieftain, Cynir of Caer Gawch in Menevia” (Owen 1994, 288: Menevia is the Latin equivalent of Mynyw, the oldest Welsh name for the city of St Davids). It is told that whilst out walking, Non, a beautiful and modest virgin, was violated by Sanctus or Sant, king of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire), who happened to be passing through Dyfed. He was the great-grandson of Cunedda, a famous Celtic warrior. At the moment of David’s conception two large stones were said to have appeared at Non’s head and feet, as if to protect her and declare the significance of her offspring. During her pregnancy, whilst Non was praying in a church, the priest (St Gildas, according to the legend: Wade-Evans 1923, 4 – though Gildas and David were in reality exact contemporaries) was struck dumb, as a sign that her child would show great wisdom and eloquence. The story tells that the “magicians” or druids of a local tribal leader (possibly Non’s own father, or perhaps Triphun, a king linked to this region, once known as Pebidiog: Thomas 1994, 90) had foreseen the birth of a boy “whose power would extend over the whole country” (James 1967, 31; Rees 1992, 10). This tyrant was alarmed and plotted to kill Non and her unborn child. When the time came for her to give birth, she “went forth along the path where the place of child-bearing was” (Wade-Evans 1923, 6): could this indicate that she sought a midwife at the well, as I suggested in Part One? However, this line has also been translated as, “the mother sought the predicted place” (James 1967, 31-2). As if to protect her from danger, a ferocious thunderstorm then arose; but within it a serene light shone through the clouds enveloping St Non as she gave birth. Local lore attributes the appearance of the well at this place to the holy birth. During her labour the stone upon which Non supported herself was said to have received the imprints of her fingers. “On that spot a church has been built, in the foundations of which this stone ‘ lies concealed” (James 1967, 32). A ruined chapel now lies in the field adjoining the well enclosure. A large and apparently incomplete stone circle (dated to the Bronze Age) surrounds the chapel, possibly being drawn into the Christian context in the recurrence of the motif of “stones” in St Non’s story, where the circle seems to be represented by the two protective stones which appeared at the time of David’s conception. The foundations of the chapel are very early; the remains of the walls medieval.

The building was abandoned at the Reformation, and used as a dwelling, the surrounding land becoming a leek garden (Rees 1992, 14; Willis 1716, 52-3) – ironically appropriate that the national symbol of Wales should have come to be grown on the birthplace of her national saint! The chapel was demolished to its existing level in 1810, the stones being put to use in local walls (Jones 1992, 29). The upright stone that stands in the chapel’s south-west corner bears a simple incised ring-cross on a stem, similar to an Irish processional cross (Dark 1992, 19-20). In addition to the hagiological pattern, the motifs in the narrative of St David’s birth are part of a pre-Christian tradition in Wales and Ireland in which the birth of a great leader or hero is not only prophesied and threatens to usurp a presiding power, but is also recognised by signs from the natural world: in this instance the turbulence in the atmosphere (Rees & Rees 1961, 223). Equally, in the same tradition, interference with standing stones or anyone within their “sanctuary” is thought to “provoke elemental disturbance” (Rees 1992, 14). It could also be said that in the story of St Non, the well itself had a similarly protective role. This is somewhat reminiscent of the Mabinogion tale “The Lady of the Fountain”, in which a challenge to the well (by the spilling of water onto a sacred slab) produces a life-threatening storm which only those of heroic mettle could survive (Jones & Jones 1982, 143-5, 151-2). This has however been interpreted as a rain-making ritual; and indeed analogous rites were practiced until relatively recently in France (Jones 1992, 52, 117).

Legend speaks of St Non as a healer and peace-maker, as in the saying attributed to her by Rhys Goch: “There is no madness like contention” (O’Malley 1985, 22). There are churches and holy wells dedicated to her at both Altarnun in Cornwall and Dirinon in Brittany, indicating that she, like many of the early Celtic saints, travelled the western sea-ways to further her work of evangelisation. These well and church dedications in other Celtic lands are paralleled by dedications to her son. Indeed, Non and David together provide an example of the cult of two (or more) saints “constantly associated with each other and with chapels dedicated to them in close proximity” (Doble 1971, 145 n. 154). In Brittany, Non’s veneration was widespread. The medieval Breton Buhez Santez Non (Life of St Non), written in the form of a miracle play, tells that after David’s conception, Non left for Brittany to hide her shame. There her son was born and there she lived. Sh• died there on one 2 March, which is now her feastday. The sanctity of St Non’s healing well has alway drawn pilgrims aside on their journey to St Davids. Thy sick were conveyed there in a cart from Nine Wells (se Part One). There their cure was completed; and the were then carried the final three-quarters of a mile t the cathedral to be blessed by a priest (Jones 1992, 26 The water of the well was believed to be efficacious fo eye complaints and rheumatism. The Englis antiquarian Browne Willis reported: There is a fine Well…cover’d with a stone roo and inclos’d within a Wall, with Benches to si upon round the Well. Some old simple People g’ stil to visit this Saint at some particular Times especially upon St Nun’s Day – which they kee holy, and offer Pins, Pebbles etc. at this We (Willis 1716, 52-3). Another report expands upon the well’s properties: There was so much faith attached to this once celebrated well that it was said every wish mad there would be realised on making an offerin• and preserving silence. There is a tradition story of its virtues: it is said to have possessed the qualities of healing all complaints, but it wa added there must be great faith…A perso labouring under the heaviest affliction o lameness with difficulty attained the well upo his crutches; he immersed in this limpid strea and returned home with unspeakable joy, havin left his crutches behind him at the well (Manb 1891, 56-7). Richard Fenton, Pembrokeshire’s gentlema historian, born in St Davids in 1747, describes personal encounter with the well at an early age: The fame this consecrated spring has obtained incredible and still is resorted to for man’ complaints. In my infancy, as was the gener usage with respect to children at that time, I w. often dipped in it, and offerings, however triflin even of a farthing or a pin, were made after ea ablution, and the bottom of the well shone wi votive brass. The spring, like most others in th district, is of excellent quality, is reported to eb and flow, and to be of wondrous efficacy complaints of the eye (Fenton 1903, 63). The well-structure has been reduced in size sin Browne Willis’ day; the benches have disappeared a single stone ledge just below water-level is position like a seat on the back wall of the chamber. A referen• to the well made between 1739 and 1761 notes: “Here a celebrated spring over which is an arched roof, whi Mr Davies, late Chantor of St Davids, not long sin improved” (Jones 1992, 70). Yet curiously a Dr Geor Harries wrote that he “remembers that well without head or cover over it” in his school days during the 1770s, and he recalls: “The head was put on the well by Mr Williams of Trelethin who had a high idea of its waters as a medicine and used it frequently for that purpose” (Royal Commission 1925, 330). Around 1800 Fenton described the well as “arched over”; and its stone hood, which resembles numbers of other well structures in Pembrokeshire, was declared to be “barrel-vaulting of the normal type” by Jones and Freeman in 1856 (p. 233) – though their use of English poses something of a conundrum when they further state that “this covering has an odd effect from the top of the vault being seen outside without any sort of roof over it”! According to Fenton the well was cleaned out in 1810 when (not surprisingly) coins and silver pins were found. In 1951 it was cleared, restored and rededicated by its Roman Catholic owners, and a pilgrimage made to it (Jones 1992, 210). Today the water level stands on average at about two feet. The bed is always strewn with “votive brass” and silver coins, pebbles and shells, whilst flowers occasionally float on the surface. A small niche just above the water in the inner lime-washed wall, probably intended for offerings, currently contains a candle. The well is situated within a walled and paved enclosure through which a stream from a higher spring runs past a statue of Our Lady to join with the well’s overflow. This then passes through the wall, and flows through the chapel field to eventually cascade down the cliff into the sea below. Overgrown masonry close to the well but just inside the chapel field may be the “little house lately built” in the mid-eighteenth century (Jones 1992, 70). Perhaps Fenton refers to this when he states: At the upper end of the field leading to Nun’s chapel there appears to be the mined site of a house, probably inhabited by the person deputed to take care of the spring, most likely a lucrative employ in more superstitious times, when the spring was much frequented (Fenton 1903, 64). A path leading through the well-enclosure is regularly used by walkers making a short detour from the coastal path. Hydrangea and fuschia bushes line the way to St Non’s Retreat House, once a Passionist monastery, beside which stands the chapel of Our Lady and St Non. Built in 1934, its design is based upon the medieval “reception” chapels, many of which topped the cliffs at suitable landing places. Here the multitude of pilgrims, journeying at the mercy of winds and currents, would have been provided with a refuge in which to offer a prayer of thanks for a safe passage, or, on an outward journey, for protection on the waves. The holy wells adjoining several of these chapels would have been sources of refreshment and encouragement to the pilgrims as they f011owed the pathways that converged upon the city of Tyddewi and the hallowed shrine of Dewi Sant.

To be continued

References

Bord, Janet & Colin. 1985. Sacred Waters. Granada. Bowen, E.G. 1983. Dewi Sant, Saint David. University of Wales Press (Cardiff). Dark, K.R. 1992. The Inscribed Stones of Dyfed. Gomer (Llandysul). Doble, G.H. 1971. Lives of the Welsh Saints. University of Wales Press (Cardiff). Fenton, R. 1903. Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire. Davies & Co. James, J.W. 1981. Rhigyfarch’s Life of St David. University of Wales Press (Cardiff). Jones, Francis. 1992 (1954). The Holy Wells of Wales. University of Wales Press (Cardiff). Jones, Gwyn, & Jones, Thomas. 1982. The Mabinogion. Dragon’s Dream (Netherlands). Jones, W.B. & Freeman, E.A. 1856. The History and Antiquities of St Davids. Manby, G.W. 1801. History and Antiquities of the Parish of St Davids. O’Malley, Brian Brendan. 1985. A Pilgrim’s Manual. Paulinus Press. O’Malley, Brendan. 1989. A Welsh Pilgrim’s Manual. Gomer (Llandysul). O’Malley, Brendan. 1992. Celtic Spirituality – St Davids Papers. Church in Wales Publications (Penarth). Owen, George. 1994. The Description of Pembrokeshire. Gomer (Llandysul). Rees, Alwyn, & Rees, Brinley. 1961. Celtic Heritage. Thames & Hudson. Rees, Nona. 1992. St David of Dewisland. Gomer (Llandysul). Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire: Pembrokeshire. 1925. H.M.S.O. Thomas, Charles. 1994. And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? University of Wales Press (Cardiff). Thomas, Patrick..1993. Candle in the Darkness. Gomer (Llandysul). Wade-Evans, A.W. 1923. Life of St David. S.P.C.K. Willis, Browne. 1716. The Survey of the Cathedral Church of St Davids.

NOTE part three was never published Source New Series ended with this publication!

The mysterious cave and well of St Fillan, Pittenweem.

St Fillan’s Well is one of the most remarkable sites in Britain being situated in an atmospheric chapel set in a cave cell at the bottom of a cliff in the seaside town of Pittenweem.

Saint Fillan was a sixth-seventh-century monk who lived in Fife, working in Aberdour. He is remembered there and Forgan, in the parish church but also on the top of Dunfilian near Comrie, where a rocky seat exists where he is said to have blessed the county, and was later claimed to cure rheumatism. Relics of him, his bell and crozier are in Edinburgh’s Royal Museum of Scotland. Whatever happened to the saint’s physical remains is unclear, but they were probably lost in the Reformation. It is known that at the Battle of Bannockburn, the Abbot of Inchaffray carried the relics into battle and many Scots claimed it was because of this they won!, the most remarkable site associated with the saint is his cave.

A legend of the saint states that he wrote his sermons and read scripture in the cave. However, the cave was so dark he was unable to do so so when he asked God what to do about this problem, God gave St. Fillan a magical glowing left arm. So now Fillan could happily read and write with his right arm, while lighting the pages with his glowing left. Whether the cave was a hermit cell or not is unclear and it is more likely that the saint would use it as a temporary accommodation as he undertook evangelical work around Fife. Certainly, the importance of the cave predates the saint as the settlement itself Pittenweem derives from the Pictish for pit and weem for cave, thus meaning Place of the cave. The cave itself is a natural sea cave, hollowed out by wave action. Now it is a fair way from the sea due to the construction of the harbour. When the saint was alive, it would have been more remote being only reachable by a boat.

Despite the unlikeliness that St Fillan would have used the cave as hermitage, it does have features which would accommodate this. For example, there are flat rocks which could be used as a bed and of course the spring

The spring fills a small pool in the sandy bottom of the cave. I was told locally that it was used to cure eye problems but Ruth and Frank Morris’s 1981 Scottish Healing Wells fails to mention any associations. It is said that the cave was a stopping off point for pilgrims on their way to St Andrews Shrine, in St. Andrews or St Ethernan’s Shrine on the Isle of May. The importance of the site was recognised in 1100 by Edgar, King of Scotland gave it to the Culdees and David I gave it to the monks of the Priory of St Mary the Virgin on the aforementioned May and thus built a priory over the cave and a stairway was built by the monks which ended in a vaulted cellar in the priory. The staircase remains in the cave.

The cave over the ages

It is unclear whether the monks used the cave as simply a shrine, but they may have used its coolness and proximity to the sea to use as storage for food. It also  served as a prison during the witch hunts of the 17-18th centuries and was certainly used by smugglers in the 18^th century and was used as a rubbish dump. It was rediscovered when in 1900, a horse ploughing in the Priory garden fell down a rubbish filled hole. This was what it was when in 1935 the Rector Canon de Voil and his father dug out this rubbish and built the current shrine in the cave. The altar was consecrated by the Bishop of St Andrews.

The cave today

The cave is entered via an ornate iron gate and a path then goes up a steep slope to the inner part of the cave which is shaped like a Y. The left of this passage lead to the small springhead, whilst the right passage leads to area which has been altered to include an altar.

Since its restoration the cave has been owned by the Bishop Lowe Trust and is entrusted to St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Pittenweem who use it every Holy Saturday night hold an ecumenical Easter service due to the similarity between the cave and Christ’s rock-hewn sepulchre The cave is open to the public since 2000 and the key available locally.