Yes difficult to believe. This site hasn’t become Fakenews! As regular followers of this blog will know I do like to rediscover a lost holy or healing spring. But little did I think that I’d possibly find one literally under my very feet. That’s right and you didn’t miss read that! I am keeping some of the details like the exact location and other distinguishing features under wraps but hopefully you’ll agree in the fact it is a curious story…which like many stories about springs is still not the complete work and there is some supposition.

Well well well

When I moved into my house I discovered a large yellow plastic mat in the hall and lifting this there was a hole. Looking down with a torch I saw brick steps and a room. It was a cellar. A cellar which I didn’t know was there. Tentatively exploring I found a fair size room with brick arches and full of junk. Two things caught my attention one a hole at floor level and the other a bricked up doorway. Looking in the hole first it opened up to a chamber wide at the top and narrow at the bottom and carved into the sandstone rock – there was nothing in it but it was clearly a well – but this is not the well the post is about. It appeared to be a domestic well carved into the rock at some point. There appeared above to have been a framework to provide pump which would have gone to the outside above. It was a domestic well. Interesting and fairly unusual although locally there are a number taking advantage of the way in which water percolates through the sandstone stone

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It was the bricked up doorway which interested me more. Fast forward a year and I decided to see what was behind the doorway. So we sledge hammered it!

What’s behind the wall?

So behind the wall there was a rectangular structure set in the ground. It was surrounded by large granite slabs it appears From what I can see, there was water on the bottom a fact proved by dipping a tape measure in with paper on it. It appeared also to be around two feet deep. What else could it be but a chamber containing a spring. A possible spring head. The bottom of this spring chamber is rock as it appears to have an uneven nature but it is difficult to see. This is to be expected the floor of the cellar is stone and so the cellar was probably build around a natural cave with a spring in one corner. Inside the chamber is a water appears a lining possibly in lead which was done to seal it no doubt. The brick chamber looks Georgian in nature but the fabric around the spring head appears to be much older than the wall and indeed it sits unsymmetrically for no reason over part of the basin. The whole chamber has a dark material on the walls which appears to be lead. A neighbour had informed me of two facts he knew of the house one that it was lead lined, here was the evidence, and the other there was a tunnel which went down into town providing a way of servants to reach the big houses. This was very unlikely but looking at it laterally was it lead lined to contain water and so was the chamber a conduit house and the tunnel did not provide servants but a service, a water service, for the houses, a conduit tunnel more likely.

Historical context

I must stress that there is no documentary evidence of a spring associated with the house. No ancient records. No well or spring marked on any map. No mention at all of any well least at all a holy one. However, I have been told by local historians that the church was situated by a spring in Anglo-Saxon times. A 1913 book of the town records discussing this Anglo-Saxon settlers:

“The new comers would find several beautiful springs rising to the west…and near to the foot of the hill, one being at the top of Church Lane. Round these springs, and by the streams flowing therefrom (where the main street now stands) they would clear the ground, build cabins chiefly of timber, and cultivate small strips of land, which would be gradually extended. Between the sites of the several springs they selected a spot on which they ultimately built a church, and it is pleasant to reflect that on that spot for a thousand years thanks and prayers have been offered to God for pardon and purity, peace and help, and every other blessing.”

Could this be the actual well? I spoke with the chairmen of the local history story who is convinced it is indeed the original spring of the town. What is the name I wonder? An picture taken in the local library states that the house is called St. Helens. This is unusual as the church across the road is called St Mary’s. Was it once called after St Helens? Unlikely. There is no evidence of a name change. But does it refer to the well. St Helen’s Wells are not uncommon. And often they indicate a pre-Christian origin.

There is clearly more to find out so hopefully I way get more information I was post further on this.