Of St. Mary’s Well, Mansfield, English Heritage’s Pastscape entry reads:

“There is much modern development in this area and there is now no surface evidence of a former well: local enquiry also negative.”

Such is the entry detailing the investigation in 1974. With Pastscape being such as useful resource it would be easy to leave it there, but in holy well research it’s not always a good idea to leave others to do the research….

Of this well called the Virgin Mary’s Well or the Old Bath (SK 548 616) little history is recorded. Indeed, the earliest record is Harrold (1801) work on Mansfield, who appears to separate the two sites as he notes that:

“Near the bath is a huge rock from which issues a constant stream of water much coveted by amateurs of the lipid element…Though I am not of the tribe of water drinkers I had the curiosity to taste thereof and pronounce it to be neither saline nor tepid.”

According to Groves (1894) the well had valuable medicinal properties and notes that if exploited it could increase the importance of the town. However, there is no evidence that this attempt to develop the site into a spa happened, although it was much frequented. He notes that a man called White, who was 80 in 1891 used to bathe in the well when he was a boy, although the water was so cold that he would not bath in it long!

The spring was used to fill a public bath in 1823 being enclosed in the grounds of Bath or Goldie’s Mill which sadly was partly demolished in 2008 after years of dereliction.  However, the well appears to disappear from view soon after Groves and no mention is made of it. Could it be destroyed?

Doing a bit more research, I uncovered a survey made by the Sherwood Archaeology Society (1998), which recorded a well which they referred to it as the Bath Mill Spring and suggest tradition thought it was a Roman Bath! It would appear that the well still survived (or at least did in 1998). They recorded it as follows:

“The spring’s chamber is around 2.5 metres square with a vaulted roof. The interior is of undressed local stone and completely rendered. At the rear of the chamber is a tank made of finely dressed limestone 75cm by 107cm and about 75cm deep. The tank was fed by water channels from the rear and the side of the structure and has an outlet conduit which presumably empties into the river which is approximately four metres below the tank. Due to the general drop in the level of the water table, the actual source of the water is now lost. Access to the water source is via four steps. The floor and a side platform show considerable evidence of heavy usage. The top three steps have been reconstructed at some time and it would appear that the chamber’s threshold has been raised. Also at a more recent date a low but substantial brick wall has been built immediately in front of the cistern. The purpose of this is not clear.”

Such a detailed report meant that the site should still exist and so I contacted the president of the society who gave me more information and I set out a warm Sunday morning to find it. Arriving at the location I met a man from Severn Trent who was doing a check on the sewerage works which was fortunate as he knew the site. Fortunately it was not in the works but the other side. He showed me from the other bank and I looked over into a morass of shoulder high nettles and brambles! Walking around to the other side my first obstacle was clear the walk way to the mill was very permanently locked! This was frustrating as I now knew the site was there and was eager to find out more. There was a second option, I noticed a garden abutted the waste area enclosing the well and I gingerly enquired of the lady there. She very kindly said it was okay and seemed pleased to hear someone was visiting the site for the right reasons, adding it was often the haunt of youths.

I jumped the fence into the boggy hole surrounding the site and made my way to where I thought it was. Soon I found the ground getting more sodden and soon I found the well. It was exactly as described above and quite substantial considering it was so little known. A 20 metre stone flagged pathway leads from the mill and such the cistern was probably built at the same time as the mill, and that the owner’s used it as a source of fresh water and was possibly moved when the approach road was moved. The description above fits what greets us today. Fortunately, it survives, but perhaps not for long as the site is now threatened with destruction as the derelict mill and lands around it are soon to be developed. Hopefully, this, the only surviving sacred spring in the towns of Nottinghamshire can be preserved for future generations.