In the book Holy wells and healing springs of Nottinghamshire I detail the existence of a holy well in the riverside village of Ratcliffe on Trent just south of Nottingham. Details regarding the Holy Well of Radcliffe-on-Trent are scant. So far research seems to suggest it is a site which only appears post-1800s and whether this is due to poor recording or some developing Victorian antiquarian fancy is unclear. The first reference is 1801 as a Holy Well Close in the vicinity of the present Park Road. The next mention was in about 1844 when a Jonas Bettison sold just 35 acres in Cliff Hill Close and Holywell Close to Earl Manvers for £4500.
However, there are no traditions associated with the site. More recently according to Mr. Priestland, the name Holy Well has been associated with a site on the pathway down from the Cliff Walk to the level of the River Trent with its upper end opposite the northern entrance to the Rockley Memorial Park. He notes that the site has been described as Halliwell, Hallow Well and Hollow Well suggesting its name derives from O.E hol.
When I researched for the book I went along the path and discovered a spring, half way down the steep pathway, which formed a pool of water which is circled by large stones and went down to form a small stream which was dammed to form a further pool a few metres below the first although. This I assumed was the holy well and I published it as such.
However, correspondence from fellow holy well enthusiast Jane Fulford suggests I was close but not actually there and that the holy well was close by in what I could describe as the most precarious of locations on the very steep slope opposite.
Rather cautiously I went to look for it. It was not easy although I had been given excellent instructions I could not work out whether it was better to go down to it or go up to it. I managed to locate from the bottom and thought I’d work upwards to it. The slope was slippery with very few footholds or grip points. I nearly managed it before slipping back into the boggy water below. Taking the downwards approach looked preferable.
Once I had located I found myself some safe footing and examined it. At first what was apparent was that it was still flowing and with some considerable flow. The present well house is constructed of what appears to be Georgian brickwork with a cement render, much of which was missing. The structure like a dog kennel in structure a few feet high, I needed to crouch down to examine it. Once inside it, one could see the curved brick barrel like roof and it was apparent that the flow had petrifying qualities. as the overflow was considerably encrusted. The structure was unfortunately heavily overgrown with a large ivy making considerable impact on the infrastructure, so much that I fear that it may not survive for much longer.
The well certainly more authentically like a holy well than the site I first thought was it; although they may well indeed feed off the same spring. The only extra piece of information that Jane Fulford informed me was that the water was used by those using the waterways although we both agreed that its positions suggestions that was very improbable. Be very interested to find out more.
In this article to celebrate 10 years of blogging I am selecting 10 of the best sites I have discovered and detailed since I had begun blogging on the topic
The Monk’s Well, Southam – Nothing can prepare you for what I could describe the most unusual of all holy wells. Hidden deep in the landscape and under a nondescript metal cover a deep shaft of squared stone plunges deep into the ground to a small well chamber below.
‘St Helen’s Well’, my house! I had to include this one as it is a possible holy well under my own house. Read how I discovered the spring and how the name of the house is suggestive of an ancient and lost St Helen’s Well
St. Anne’s Well, Brough. Often a name of a ‘unknown’ well on a map leads the explorer to discover a boggy hole overgrown and difficult to image its importance. Here a few miles out of Buxton and in the shadow of a Roman fort is a well which appears have been missed by many researchers but well built and likely to be very significant,
Lady’s Well, Mansfield. This time a site which all authorities had recorded had been lost for good and attempts by ‘English heritage’ failed to find it. A bit of local field work and contacting local people and low and behold one can find the best preserved Nottinghamshire holy well…hopefully news of a residential development on the site will not result in its final demise!
Lady’s Well, Wombourne. In this case a site which is well recorded but appeared to have disappeared off maps and thus thought to have gone. A bit of looking at older maps and field work revealed not only a magically placed site but a remarkable example of a natural spring carefully improved by past generations to create sometime quite evocative.
St Peter’s Well, Peterchurch. A slightly different affair this one. When I first visited in the 1990s it was a forlorn site with the bath filled in with concrete and all that could be seen was the head through which the water once flowed (and had been tanked). Roll forward 30 odd years and community action had restored the site wonderfully back to what it first looked like – a bit of a triumph.
Holiwell, Odell. Bedfordshire is a county not fully explored by holy well researchers and one I am slowly working through. This site again I had found an old photo and worked out its location as a likely place. Expecting to be wrong or find the site gone I was amazed to find it almost exactly as it was in the photo…well almost.
St Mary’s Well, Rhuddlan. I cannot claim to have discovered this as its quite prominent at the front of the stately house which is Bodrhyddan Hall but I didnt expect to find such a splendid building over the spring.
St Chad’s Well, Brettenham. It is probably not a St Chad’s well not an estate spring made into a folly holy well. Nevertheless a fascinating site.
St Christopher’s Well, Denton. Again another grotto and is an overgrown wilderness that appeared to lay unvisited for many years…it still had old pre decimal coins in it.
Apr 19
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Back in the 1990s when I was researching the Holy Wells and healing springs of Nottinghamshire I first found the site of Orston Spa, a rare ‘intact’ site. My book describes it as follows: “the wall had recently been re-pointed, although the steps look vandalised as some of its stones had fallen off. The spa […]
There are a number of locations. In this blog post extracted and revised from my book Holy Wells and Healing Spring of Nottinghamshire I explore where the well(s) of Southwell can be found.
There’s a monument it was easy to find!
The supposed South Well (SK 708 535) is commemorated by a brick monument called Paulinus Stone which has a plaque attached to it, recording the following:
“It is reputed that in the 7th century the water was used to baptise the first Christians in this part of Nottinghamshire and from that time on for several centuries the spring was considered to be a holy well the water of which was said to have healing qualities”
The monument is above a small wooded area where there appears to be the dried up remains of a spring head, but this may not be the site referred to in the town’s name. I have been unable to find any supporting evidence for this claim and it seems unlikely that this remote location would be the site for the first settlement being a fair distance from the Minster.
Where else could it be?
Another nearer site was to be found in the Admiral Rodney public house, in King Street (SK 701 540) this being found in the corner of the bar but a recent visit did not find it. However, although close to the historic centre of the bar it seems unlikely to be the exact site.
The two other sites where in the Minster precincts. The Holy well (SK 701 538) found in the cloister leading to the Chapter House and probably used for liturgical purposes and the Lady well (SK 703 537) was found in the churchyard, immediately under the walls of the Choir on the north side of the Chapter House. William Wylie’s 1853 Old and New Nottingham notes that this later well was:
“merely a mock sunk to receive the overflowing of the spouts and the drainage from the church and that it was no great compliment to the holy patroness”.
Thus it was unlikely to be the third well. It is said to be marked by a stone with a W on it but I was unable to find it. It is interesting to note that there was a Roman villa south east of the Minster. Work in 1959 showed a large cold bath. Did the Holy well provide water for this bath? Both were filled in, the later being covered by a vestry built in 1915. It was filled in, in the 1764 where a clergyman called Fowler drowned in it.
Has the titular well been found?
However, I feel that the most obvious example was the Lord’s Well (SK 705 537) and this supported by Robert Shilton (1818) The History of Southwell in the county of Nottinghamshire who notes:
“The received opinion is, that the place took its name from a well on the south side of the town of some note formerly as effectual in the cure of rheumatism and there was once a stone recess for the convenience for bathers, this was called the Lord’s Well, probably from its spring rising in the demesne of the Lord of the Manor…”
According to Dickinson in his 1787 work on the History of Southwell, an attempt was made to develop it into a spa, but by 1801 it was noted that it was only used by boys for amusement. Accordingly, this still survives in some form in the private gardens of the Residence. However, according to the present Dean there appears to be no spring or well arising there but a more likely site is to be found in the Archbishop’s Palace. Here can be found a site which would fit Shilton’s description. It is a rectangular structure made of squared stone, five foot by three foot approximately, which could easily have been used a bath. It looks of some age but may be modern. A spring appears to fill it, and this arises at the edge of the lawn and flows from a carved head (probably modern in date). The structure is located a few feet from the ruins of the Archbishop’s Palace, so it would seem likely that this is the site and it is surprising it has been missed over the years. The site is at SK 701 537 but again a recent visit did find it still there but filled in and dry. If it is the titular spring it is deplorable treated!
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.
I’ve mentioned Frank’s work in last month’s 101st post. Frank is very well known in what is or was called Earth Mysteries, circles. A true pioneer and very knowledgeable, he has just had the book A-Z of Nottinghamshire curiosities published (see link below) More can be read of his credentials on the link below too. He recently wrote and published this article in a local Nottingham newspaper and I am more than happy to re-publish an abridged and slightly edited version below. I hope next year to bring more guest writers in…so if you fancy writing about holy and healing wells let me know.
Fair Maids seem to populate the folklore of Nottinghamshire, one such beautiful women, Lady Isabel de Cauldwell, – who we might well call the Fair Maid of Newark, – is a central character in the legend of St. Catherine’s Well. Unfortunately, this one too has a tragic ending.
Lady Isabel de Cauldwell was said to be the beautiful daughter of Alan de Cauldwell, who in the 14th century lived in Newark Castle. Her great beauty, intelligence and ready wit, attracted many suitors but Isabel had eyes for only two, Sir Guy Saucimer and Sir Everard Bevercotes, Lord of Balderton. Some say that all three were childhood friends. Both men were handsome, rich and full of knightly virtue. Each in turn had asked Isabel for her hand in marriage but she loved both equally and refused to give an answer. With each new rejection the bitterness in the two Knights grew. Finally the two rivals told Isabel that she must choose one of them as her husband and if she did, the rejected suitor would be content.
Although she searched to the depth of her heart, Isabel could not choose between them. The Knights decided that the only honourable alternative was to fight for her hand, God would decide the victor. On St. Catharine’s eve (23rd/24th Nov.) the combatants met in a field on the bank of the river Devon, just outside the town gates. First both men broke their lance on the others shield and then, on foot the sound of sword against sword rang-out in the night air. Both were equal to the other and for hours the fight continued. Finally, Sir Guy began to get the upper-hand and landed a mighty blow on Sir Everard’s helm. For a brief moment Everard stood motionless and then fell mortally wounded to the ground. A great gout of blood gushed from his gaping wound propelled by his still beating heart. As if to receive the blood the earth opened, but instead a clear spring of water erupted from ground. Blood and water mixed and flowed in a stream down to the river. Sir Guy gazed down at the lifeless corpse with horror and then ridden with guilt fled the scene.
When news of events on the banks of the Devon reached the Castle, Lady Isabel, – the Fair Maid of Newark, – fell into a swoon. Grief stricken she was taken to her sick-bed and within hours died of a ‘broken heart’. Meanwhile, Sir Guy had reached London where he joined a band of pilgrims bound for Roman. Throughout the vogue from Dover to Calais, Sir Guy became increasingly weak in body and soul and his fellow pilgrims were forced to abandon him in France. As if to add to his troubles Guy’s body became wracked with leprous sores, which he saw as God’s punishment. For a long time Guy wondered the French countryside as a leper and beggar. Finally he hide himself away in the Forest of St. Avold where he lived a poor and wretched life. The days and nights past slowly for Sir Guy until the night when St Catherine appeared to him in a dream. The shinning vision told him that the only relief for his torment was to be found in the water of the spring that issued from the spot where he had slain Sir Everard.
Sir Guy made a long and painful journey back to England where seeking full absolution for his sins he was consecrated as a hermit. On returning to Newark, Guy bathed in the spring and his leprosy was cured. In grateful thanks Guy built a carved stone wall around the spring and close by a small chapel dedicated to St Catherine. For many years, until he died of old age, Guy lived as a holy hermit by the spring, where he administered to the needs of those seeking a cure from its healing waters. Locals called him St Guthred. The waters of St Catherine’s Well, – now in the grounds of a private house, – still flow to this day.
St. Catherine’s Well today in a private garden
The St. Catherine’s Well legend purports to have been first written down in the 15th century, although no document of this date containing the story can be found. One of the most complete written versions of the story is that of W. Dickinson in his book ‘The History and Antiquities of the Town of Newark’ 1816. Here Dickinson falls into the trap of accepting the tale as a first-hand account of the Well’s 13th or 14th century origin. He goes on to state that proof of this is found in the fact that two of the names mentioned in the story, Caldwell and Saucimer are found in the Chantries founded in St Mary Magdalene’s Church in Newark. However, a number of other later authors suggest that Dickinson was in fact given an ‘invented’ story as a joke. If I believed this to be the case then our investigation would end here!
If indeed the St Catherine’s Well legend is what we might term a fake, then it is a ‘good one,’ created by someone with knowledge of tradition and folklore. At first glance the story does appear to be a medieval tale, whether a 19th century invention or not. However, a more detailed examination shows that it very carefully combines elements of two or more classic folktales. Just because the story has a medieval setting does not mean it has a medieval origin. True folkstories of this kind are often subtly changed to incorporate elements from the age in which they are told.
Springs, wells and other valuable water sources, – especially those believed to have healing properties, – have been venerated since the remote past. With the later Christian acquisition of ‘pagan holy wells’ and healing springs, the sites were rededicated to an appropriate Christian Saint. Likewise, any existing oral tradition relating to the sites former use or origin was likewise changed. As the St Catherine’s Well legend can be directly compared with very similar stories of other holy wells, it appears to have been given a medieval Christian ‘gloss’.
Can we see any distinctly ancient or pagan roots in the St Catherine’s Well Legend? In telling the story of the Well, the legend appears to combine two classic themes. The first of these is that of the Fair Maid. The idea of the beautiful women, – the fair maid, – and her two rival lovers is a very ancient one. It is believed to depict the annual cycle of the solar year with two distinct seasons of light and dark, – summer and winter, – conflicting for possession of the Earth goddess. The primary story is to be found in the Celtic myth of Creiddylad. Here the two halves of the solar year, represented by the gods Gwyn ap Nudd, – winter, – and Guthyr, – summer, – must fight every May Day for the possession the goddess Creiddylad, – spring. As at this point in the year, their powers are equal; their battle is destined to be eternal. However, at other significant times of the year, one season, – god, – or other is dominant and has temporary control of the goddess. The Creiddylad myth begins with Gwyn, – winter, – kidnaping Creiddylad, – spring. This sets in motion a bloody war between the factions of Gwyn and Guthyr. Such is the slaughter on both sides, (a cosmic imbalance), the high king Arthur intervenes and declares that the two adversaries must fight annually at the midpoint of the year until the end of time.
If we now compare the St Catherine’s Well legend with the primary Celtic myth, we can see there are many similarities. Does this point to an ancient Celtic origin and veneration of the Well? Given the time of year at which the fight is said to have taken place, St Catherine’s Eve, – which approximates the winter solstice, – and Sir Guy’s apparent victory, it may be speculated that Guy is Gwyn the winter king. If we take the story further we can see that Guy’s victory results in his self-imposed exile and the death of Isobel, his ultimate prize. His victory is therefore incomplete. I believe that at this point the original ending to a Celtic story has been lost or deliberately changed when the Well received its Christian dedication to Saint Catherine.
We have already seen that the first part of St. Catherine’s Well legend bares strong similarities to stories told about pre-Christian sacred sites. There is evidence too that the remainder of the story suggests a pagan context.In the 13th and 14th centuries, – the time of the supposed origin of St. Catherine’s Well in Newark, – many pagan and early Christian ‘holy wells’ and ‘healing springs’ received what today we would call a ‘make over’. The established Church through the many Monastic Houses saw the perceived increase in the popularity of such sites as a valuable way of making money from those seeking cures for their ills In a strong marketing ploy pre-Christian sites were re-branded with a name change and dedication to an appropriate Christian Saint relevant to earlier associated traditions of the site. In some case, originally open springs were enclosed and new attendant chapels were built. To control access to the sites monks or hermits were installed to collect a revenue from those seeking a cure.
Remember that the second part of the St. Catherine legend tells how Sir Guy returns to Newark seeking a cure for his leprosy in an existing healing spring, – all be it one of his own accidental creation. The legend goes on to say Guy encloses the original source of the healing waters and builds a chapel. He dedicates the Well and chapel to St. Catherine and becomes its first Christian guardian, – a holy hermit attending the needs of others seeking a cure from the spring.
This medieval Christian adoption of healing springs and holy wells is clearly demonstrated in the history of Nottingham’s ‘premier spring’, St. Ann’s Well. The well had been known as a place of healing long before the monks of Lenton Priory ‘seized the great spring of the town’. The earliest references to this site include the names Brodwell, and Owswell, – the later associating it with the pagan Saxon goddess Eostre.Much to the annoyance of the local population, the Priory dedicated the Well to St. Ann. In 1409 a chapel of the same dedication was built next to the Well, thus sealing the Priory’s authority over the site.
The dedication of the Newark ‘holy well’ to St. Catherine is also highly significant. St Catherine is one of the ‘Virgin Martyrs’ who dedicated her life in ‘mystical marriage’ to Christ. Tradition says that she was the beautiful daughter of the pagan King Costus and Queen Sabinella, who governed Alexandria. She converted to Christianity at the age of 14 and declared that she would remain a virgin and only marry someone who surpassed her in beauty, intelligence, wealth and dignity. The basic story of her martyrdom tells how the Roman Emperor Manutius fell in love with her whilst she was attempting to convert him to Christianity. When she spurned his advances he had her tortured on a spiked wheel, which miraculously broke. Submitted to further torture, she still refused to marry him and Maxentius finally had her beheaded. An early tradition has it that angels carried her body to Mount Sinai where her burial site became a monastery. It is said that when her tomb was opened, it was found that a constant stream of scented oil with curative properties flowed from her body. This part of her story gave rise to her association with healing waters
There are many familiar themes in St. Catherine’s story. We have already seen that her ‘feast day’ approximates the time of the mid-winter solstice. In St. Catherine’s story we once again find a ‘Fair Maid’ wooed by a ‘dark lord’ at the time of mid-winter. Part of the celebration of her feast day was the lighting of a wooden wheel, – .the origin of our modern Catherine wheel firework. The origin of this practice is unknown, but it is interesting to note that in many parts of pagan Britain it was customary to mark the winter solstice by rolling a burning cart-wheel down a hill.
Given the evidence so-far, the St. Catherine’s Well legend seems to suggest that the healing spring was once a pagan sacred site dedicated to a spring goddess, – the Fair Maid, – and her progress through the winter months of the cycle of the year.
Like St. Catherine’s, there are many holy wells that are said to have miraculously sprung from the ground where blood was shed such as St. Winifred’s Well in last month’s post
When Sir Guy returned to Newark seeking the healing waters of the spring where he had slain Sir Everard, he was suffering from leprosy. This dreadful disease would have been familiar to the medieval audience of the legend, as would its association with healing spring and wells. Leprosy, self-imposed exile and a healing spring are the themes behind the founding of the City of Bath. Around AD 43, Roman engineers began to develop a and was i local deity, the goddess Sulis whom the Romans associated with their own Minerva. A town which the Romans called ‘Aqua Sulis’, – the Waters of Sulis’, – grew up around the spring. Writing in the 12th century, the Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth, give his own account of the founding of Bath in his book ‘Historia Regum Britanniae’, (History of the Kings of Britain). He tells how a young prince, Bladud caught leprosy and was imprisoned by the Royal Court to prevent an imperfect King ascending to the throne. Bladud escapes prison and goes into exile far from the Court. He becomes a swineherd tending is pigs in a remote forest. As time passes he notices that his pigs have also contracted leprosy. However, observing the pig closely he finds that each morning when he ‘turn‘s out’ his animals some of them wonder off out of the woods. When they return, they are covered in a black mud and free from disease. The next morning Bladud follows the pigs and finds that the animals roll in the mud of a hot spring some two miles distant from his dwelling. Bladud decides to bathe in the spring and finds that when he emerges he is free from his leprosy. Cured, he returns to his father’s Court and later succeeds him to the throne. Bladud himself is later succeeded by his son Lear, made famous by Shakespear. Bladud does not forget the place of his miraculous cure. He builds a ‘bath’ around the spring so that others might take the cure. Geoffrey’s book is not a true history of actual Kings. He sets Bladud’s story over 800 year after the Romans had founded the city of Bath. Bladud’s tale is taken from pre-Roman Celtic mythology. Here we find him as the father of the sea god Lier and not a king.
We can now see how the St. Catherine’s legend compares with those of other holy wells and healing springs and has all of the elements of these ancient tales. However, there is one final twist to the story which other writers on the subject have missed. The story contains the name of another Christian Saint. The story tells how as the hermit guardian of the well Sir Guy is known locally as St Guthred. St. Guthfrith or Guthred is a saint associated with the 9th century king of Northumbria and Viking York. Could it be that the Newark well was original dedicated to Guthred, a name which remained in the popular imagination long after it was dedicated to St. Catherine in the 13th/14th century. No archaeological evidence for a chapel close to St. Catherine’s well has ever been found. Perhaps this is because the search has been in the wrong place. An alternative ending to the St. Catherine’s story states that Sir Guy could not build his chapel next to the well as the site frequently flooded. Instead he chose the site of a second spring in the same aquifer, which was on slightly higher ground. Could it be that St. Catherine’s Well is one of two or more healing spring? Evidence of this is perhaps to be found in the words of an inscription on a stone which is said to have once covered the well; ‘St. Catherine’s Well Sutton springs 1882’.
You may be interested in my article on this website.
http://www.ournottinghamshire.org.uk/page_id__957_path__0p2p133p.aspx
Thanks go again to Frank and I direct you to purchasing the excellent book A-Z of Nottinghamshire curiosities from http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com website.
New Book Available From May 2014:
The A-Z of Curious Nottinghamshire
by Frank E Earp
“Weird, spooky, gruesome, humorous, and strange but true stories come alive in The A-Z of Curious Nottinghamshire. ‘Curious’ is perhaps not the first word you would use to label Nottinghamshire. But ‘curiouser and curiouser’ it becomes when you dig below the surface. Here the reader will meet highwaymen and hangmen, saints and martyrs, flying cars and bedsteads. To sum up, eccentrics, legends, folklore, murders, scandals, ghosts, incredible characters and oodles of wow factor, all may be found within the pages of this book”.
Available from all good book shops and also available on-line. The book can also be ordered directly from The History Press:
Next quarter (Summer) – An article on the Alton Springs, Wiltshire evidence for prehistoric worship examined by Heart of Albion publisher Bob Trubshaw
For my 99th post I’ve decided to revisit one of the blogs most popular posts https://insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/perhaps-not-so-jolly-old-well-friar-tucks-well-at-blidworth/,….with new photos and hopefully with a new appraisal.
Towards a restoration of the well?
In my post about Friar Tuck’s Well I bemoaned the lack of any good photos. Whilst my search for photos of the whole structure have drawn a blank so far an exciting discovery via fellow folklorist Frank Earp in his photo collection which will go some way to reassessing and understanding the structure if and hopefully when it is fully restored. Frank had to scan the photo in two sections and I have ‘glued’ them back together digitally (I include two different glued versions) I include the photos as they are
He believes the photos were taken between 1975-78 I have included them compared to recent photos labelled to where I suggest the lost features are. My question being do these structures seen in the picture lie beneath the mud and mire seen in the recent photo or has all the stone work been removed. Frank described the ‘basin’ as being cut out of the sandstone rather than being built with gives hope. Sadly, the photo fails to show the position of the railings. If combined with this image from the late Bill Richard’s Book on Friar Tuck and Blidworth Forest we can just work that the railings enclosed the basin seen in Frank’s photo just traceable as a depression.
The Ash tree which damaged the well, post Frank’s photo circular late 1980s?
What the photo does go to show is the importance of those pictures taken by ‘amateur’ well enthusiasts…keep photographing. I hope one day that the land the well is on can be purchased and the site repaired and this photo will help I feel in that venture. Especially as taking a walk….I found….
Big changes at Blidworth
A recent visit found all the trees uprooted and channels made to drain the pool above. I thought at first that the well itself had been gone, but some focusing on the area revealed it still remained but the spring head brickwork looked more dilapidated and the railings gone. No sign still of anything like Frank’s photo above however, I think the sediment needs to be removed and a long period of dryness required. Fortunately the site is listed, grade II, and on an at risk register suggesting the authorities are aware of but something still needs to be done to reveal the ashlar trough below.
Another theory?
The name Friar Tuck maybe a bit of misdirection. If we look at the word Frere Tuck this means ‘troublesome brother’ the former from tucian perhaps if we combine this with the fact that the spring is intermittent, a piece of local lore recorded in my book, does it perhaps refer to the damage caused by this flow, in short a woe water, who’s flow either caused problems or predicted trouble. Frank has also focused on the possible folklore behind the famous fight between Tuck and Robin. Rather than be a ‘historical’ event it probably has a deeper folklore message of dark battling light or the Winter fighting the Spring.
Acknowledgements
I stress the copyright on these important photos lays with Frank. Thanks go again to Frank and I direct you to purchasing the excellent book A-Z of Nottinghamshire curiosities from http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com website. I asked Frank to contribute his excellent article on the origins of Newark’s St Catherine’s Well, in what I hope will be a regular feature of guest bloggers
Although January 1st, Imbolc and May 1st (or its first sunday) are associated with veneration of wells and springs and their increase in proficiency, Midsummer (Eve or Day) was a date often associated with visiting wells. Often the wells would be dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the saint whose feast day would be on that date. Some such as St. John’s Well, Broughton or St John’s Well, Shenstone whose waters were thought to be more curative on that day. This is clear at Craikel Spring, Bottesford, Lincolnshire Folklorist Peacock (1895) notes that:
“Less than fifty years ago a sickly child was dipped in the water between the mirk and the dawn on midsummer morning,’ and niver looked back’ards efter, ‘immersion at that mystic hour removing the nameless weakness which had crippled him in health. Within the last fifteen years a palsied man went to obtain a supply of the water, only to find, to his intense disappointment, that it was drained away through an underground channel which rendered it unattainable.”
Now a lost site, it is possible that the site now called St. John’s Well in the village is the same site considering its connection to midsummer.
Often these visits would become ritualised and hence as Hazlitt notes in the Irish Hudibras (1689) that in the North of Ireland:
“Have you beheld, when people pray, At St. John’s well on Patron-Day,
By charm of priest and miracle, To cure diseases at this well;
The valleys filled with blind and lame, And go as limping as they came.”
In the parish of Stenness, Orkney local people would bring children to pass around it sunwise after being bathed in the Bigwell. A similar pattern would be down at wells at Tillie Beltane, Aberdeenshire where the well was circled sunwise seven times. Tongue’s (1965) Somerset Folklore records of the Southwell, Congresbury women used to process around the well barking like dogs.
These customs appear to have been private and probably solitary activities, in a number of locations ranging from Northumberland to Nottingham, the visiting of the wells was associated with festivities. One of the most famed with such celebration was St Bede’s Well at Jarrow. Brand (1789) in his popular observances states:
“about a mile to the west of Jarrow there is a well, still called Bede’s Well, to which, as late as the year 1740, it was a prevailing custom to bring children troubled with any disease or infirmity; a crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping. My informant has seen twenty children brought together on a Sunday, to be dipped in this well; at which also, on Midsummer-eve, there was a great resort of neighbouring people, with bonfires, musick, &c.”
Piercy (1828) states that at St. John’s Well Clarborough, Nottinghamshire
“a feast, or fair, held annually on St. John’s day, to which the neighbouring villagers resorted to enjoy such rural sports or games as fancy might dictate.”
Similarly, the Lady Well, Longwitton Northumberland, or rather an eye well was where according to Hodgon (1820-58) where:
“People met here on Midsummer Sunday and the Sunday following, when they amused themselves with leaping, eating gingerbread brought for sale to the spot, and drinking the waters of the well.”
When such activities ceased is unclear, but in some cases it was clearly when the land use changed. This is seen at Hucknall’s Robin Hood’s well, when the woods kept for Midsummer dancing, was according to Marson (1965-6) in an article called Wells, Sources and water courses in Nottinghamshire countryside states it was turned to a pheasant reserve, the open space lawn was allowed to grass over and subsequently all dancing ceased. In Dugdale’s (1692) Monasticon Anglicanum notes that at Barnwell Cambridgeshire:
“..once a year on St John Baptist’s Eve, boys and lads met there, and amused themselves in the English fashion with wrestling matches and other games and applauded each other in singing songs and playing musical instruments. Hence by reason of the crowd that met and played there, a habit grew up that on the same day a crowd of buyers and sellers should meet in same place to do business.”
Whether the well itself was the focus for the festivities or the festivities were focused around the well because it provided water are unclear, there are surviving and revived midsummer customs which involve bonfires and general celebrations but no wells involved.
The only custom, revived in 1956, which resembles that of the midsummer well visiting is Ashmore’s Filly Loo. This is the only apparent celebration of springs at Midsummer is at Ashmore Dorset where a local dew pond, where by long tradition a feast was held on its banks, revived in 1956 and called Filly Loo, it is held on the Friday nearest midsummer and consists of dancing and the holding of hands around the pond at the festivities end.
Another piece of evidence perhaps for the support of a well orientated event as opposed an event with a well is the structure of the Shirehampton Holy Well, Gloucestershire which arises in:
“‘A large cave … Inside, there is crumbling masonry – the remains of an ancient shrine or hermitage – and a pool fed by a stream which seeps through the floor of the cave. The rays of the midsummer sun are said to strike the centre of this pool, and seers used to read the future in its depths.”
Tait (1884–5) suggests that the building was:
“duly oriented for midsummer day, so that it is clearly a mediaeval dedication to S. John Baptist.”
This unusual site may indicate the longer and deeper associations of springs and midsummer than is first supposed…or antiquarian fancy. You decide.
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March is a time when the Trent Aegir is at its strongest with the High Spring tides with heights ranging from 8 feet to 13 feet. However in 2013, July and August have the highest predicted Aegir and much of its impact has been reduced by dredging. Brown’s (1874) Notes about Notts describes it as:
“Near the mouth of the Trent at spring-tides the influx of sea water causes that of the river to mount up into a tidal wave six or eight feet high which rolls on its onward course between the confined banks in a remarkable manner. Boatman call it the Eagre, and woe betide the craft that upon such occasion has not a man standing by to pay out a sufficient of cable.”
Firth’s (1915) Highways and Byways of Nottinghamshire notes:
“At Littleborough if you have good fortune, you may see the Aegir. This is the bore, or wall of water, which rushes up the Trent during the spring tides, followed by a series of waves known as the ‘Whelps’. It is caused by the tide moving up the Humber to the mouth of the Trent where they are met by the big volume of water coming down. A wall rises and flows rapidly up the river, sweeping round the bends with great speed and with a curious rippling sound. Sometimes the wall of water is six feet high, and it brings disaster to any boats which it catches unprepared. George Elliott speaks of the Aegir and the floods in the Mill on the Floss, for the Floss is the Trent.”
Swinnerton’s (1910) Nottinghamshire History notes:
“The influence of the spring tide is felt as far as Sutton, but for some miles above Stockwith it is shown as remarkable bore.”
Sadly although West and East Stockwith is still a good place to see it, weirs to the north of Newark and dredging beyond means that locations such as Littleborough are no longer good view points.
Origin of the name
Marsden’s Lincolnshire stated that it derived from a Norse god of the sea, Kaye in Lincolnshire and South Humberside, suggests that it took its name from ‘Oegir the Terrible’ a Danish god and significantly refers to St. Oggs in the Gainsborough area. It could itself also mean Og suggests it is the same as the sea-giant Hlér, who lives on the isle of href. Aegir is said to be the brother of Logi (fire), Kari (wind) and his wife a sea goddess”Rán”Their children were nine billow maidens who were Unnr (or Uðr, wave), Bára (or Dröfn, wave), Blóðughadda (bloody sea), Bylgja (large wave), Dúfa (the pitching wave), Hefring (the surging wave), Himinglæva (reflecting) Hrönn (the grasping wave) and Kólga (cold wave) doubtless waves which may have gone up the Trent.
A sacrifice to appease the god
The suggestion of an origin from a pre-Christian god, is indicated by the fact that sacrifices were given to the Aegir. This is recorded by Sutton in her Lincolnshire Calendar. Animal sacrifice was according to Sutton (1996) to be celebrated in the Gainsborough area within living memory:
“It was said that the river Trent was a greedy river and would take seven lives a year, so in March when many of the lambs were born a farmer would sacrifice to the river a cade or weak lamb. He believed that by his action a human life would be saved.”
Latter perhaps the giving of a coin was good enough:
“It was the custom to throw a coin into the Aegir to appease the anger of the flow. A number of people believed that the more money the less angry it became.”
From Gainsborough in the 1920s:
“When I was a boy it was the custom to throw a piece of silver into the Trent during the Aegir at the high spring tide and the autumn tide (the equinox). The piece of silver was a toll fee to prevent you from drowning in the Trent. I’ve done it a few time myself as a bot; the silver was a silver three-penny bit, or a tanner (6d). I was once out on the river in a cob-boat diring an Aegir and was lifted very high on the tidal wave. It was very scary at the time but being a kid I didn’t realise just how lucky I was to get away with it. The Aegir always dumped plenty of mud along the river bank and when the mud dried out it was like Fuller’s Earth, a kind of fine powder. It was custom for local mothers to gather this mud for babies’ nappy rash: it was very effective for a sore bottom.”
The Aegir and King Cnut
Another legend is that whilst Gainsborough castle, now covered by Gainsborough Old Hall, King Cnut annoyed by the flattery heaped upon by his courtiers asked to be carried down to the sea in his throne. It is thought that the Aegir was what he was trying to repel. He was of course unsuccessful, noting:
“Let all the world know that the power of monarchs is vain…no one deserves the name of King but He whose Will the Heavens, Earth and Sea obey.”
Other Trent traditions
It was at some point believed to be lucky to cross the river by boat and it conferred healing in some cases, this as may explain why the ferryman across the Trent received a very warm welcome at Clifton, where every Christmas he received a free meal and hospitality on the Parish. The family at North Clifton were famously said to be haunted by a great fish which appeared in the river as a harbinger of doom for one of its members. Notes on it suggest it was a considerable sized surgeon.
Similarly at a bend of the Trent at Owston Ferry was haunted by Jenny Hearn or Hurn or Jenny Yonde. This little creature was like a small man or woman, though it had a face of a seal with long hair. It travelled on the water in a large pie dish.
The Trent is still a mysterious and foreboding river, much of its route quiet and remote…that is until the sound of the tidal wave appears.
Interestingly this is the only other site within the mediaeval borders of Sherwood forest associated with the legend and its pedigree could be considered dubious. Friar Tuck’s Well which is associated with his legendary hermitage. The well was surrounded by ornate railings and low walling and a cascade of water would have run down a series of angled stones after arising at first to fill a small chamber above. Considerable damage was done when an ash tree fell on the site in the 1980s or before. Consequently, the low walling stones have nearly all gone, but when first visited parts of the railings lay buckled and bent emerging from the boggy water. The spring no longer appears to flow down the cascade and there is no water in the chamber above it, but its chalybeate water still emerges from the left hand side of the structure.
A local legend
Local legend suggests that the remains of the moat just before the spring head were where Friar Tuck resided. It is said that when he was ousted from his cell by a Roger de Tallibois, he cursed the springs in this area, making them dry for seven year intervals and indeed in recent heavy rainfall periods the spring has not flowed! Other sources suggest it was Danish raiders who not finding gold in the area cursed the springs.
He also notes that the spring water was still collected by local people for its healing qualities. Was it a pagan site? Does the site have some connection with the Blidworth Boulder, a nearby holed glacial erratic? This is suggested to be able to heal children with rickets and interestingly is also associated with Friar Tuck.
A forlorn folly or hopeless holy well?
It is possible that the site records a local hermit or saint who has become tangled up with Friar Tuck legend. The fact that the well may have been dedicated to a saint is supported by the Rev. R. H. Whitworth, local vicar (1895-1908) who notes to local historian Ernest Smedley that the spring was called St. Lawrence’s Spring. However, I have been unable to find any supporting evidence for this view and it may be wishful thinking by the vicar, (the original church was dedicated to the saint). It could be the Heghwelles noted in documents of 1350 at Ravenshede.Does its name possibly derive from O.E halig or is it another site? Equally the spring could have been purely an estate invention to impress visitors to Fountaindale and the name Friar Tuck attached, especially as the story of Tuck was possibly from Sussex, as two royal writs referring to a Frere Tuk survive from 1429, but of course this date is too late to be associated with Robin Hood who generally is accepted to be ‘active’….
This is also at variance to the presence of the character in May plays in the 15th century such as that from 1475’s Robin Hood and the Knight or Robin Hood and the Sheriff, which suggests either a rapid rise to fame or else the Sussex friar was an actor playing the part in this play and using a pseudonym.
Fountain dale or Fountain’s abbey?
The other problem is that it is possible that there is a confusion occuring over the location. It is possible that Fountaindale has been confused by Fountain’s Abbey, and this may be the fault of authors such as Washington Irving who stayed at Fountaindale house and did much to support the legend. The obvious problem with this location is that it was Benedictine and not a Franciscan establishment; they were of course established in Nottingham in the 13th century. It is also worth noting that Fountains Abbey does have a Robin Hood’s Well and a notable stream to cross. The most famous story, of their encounter to refer to Fountaindale however is recorded by Arthur Quiller-Couch, in the Oxford Book of Ballads (1910).
| ‘But how many months be in the year? There are thirteen, I say; The midsummer moon is the merryest of all Next to the merry month of May. |
‘Shoot on, shoot on, thou fine fellòw, Shoot on as thou hast begun; If thou shoot here a summer’s day, Thy mark I will not shun.’ |
| IN summer time, when leaves grow green, And flowers are fresh and gay, Robin Hood and his merry men Were [all] disposed to play. |
Robin Hood shot passing well, Till his arrows all were gone; They took their swords and steel bucklers, And fought with might and maine; |
| Then some would leap, and some would run, And some use artillery: ‘Which of you can a good bow draw, A good archer to be? |
From ten o’ th’ clock that day, Till four i’ th’ afternoon; Then Robin Hood came to his knees, Of the friar to beg a boon. |
| Which of you can kill a buck? Or who can kill a doe? Or who can kill a hart of grease, Five hundred foot him fro?’ |
A boon, a boon, thou curtal friar! I beg it on my knee; Give me leave to set my horn to my mouth, And to blow blasts three.’ |
| Will Scadlock he kill’d a buck, And Midge he kill’d a doe, And Little John kill’d a hart of grease, Five hundred foot him fro. |
‘That will I do,’ said the curtal friar! ‘Of thy blasts I have no doubt; I hope thou’lt blow so passing well Till both thy eyes fall out.’ |
| ‘God’s blessing on thy heart,’ said Robin Hood, ‘That hath [shot] such a shot for me; I would ride my horse an hundred miles, To finde one could match with thee.’That caus’d Will Scadlock to laugh, He laugh’d full heartily: ‘There lives a curtal friar in Fountains Dale Will beat both him and thee. |
Robin Hood set his horn to his mouth He blew but blasts three; Half a hundred yeomen, with bows bent, Came raking over the lee. ‘Whose men are these,’ said the friar, ‘That come so hastily?’ ‘These men are mine,’ said Robin Hood ‘Friar, what is that to thee?’ |
| ‘That curtal friar in Fountains Dale Well can a strong bow draw; He will beat you and your yeomen, Set them all on a row.’ |
‘A boon, a boon,’ said the curtal friar, ‘The like I gave to thee! Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth, And to whute whutès three.’ |
| Robin Hood took a solemn oath, It was by Mary free, That he would neither eat nor drink Till the friar he did see. |
‘That will I do,’ said Robin Hood, ‘Or else I were to blame; Three whutès in a friar’s fist Would make me glad and fain.’ |
| Robin Hood put on his harness good, And on his head a cap of steel, Broad sword and buckler by his side, And they became him weel. |
The friar he set his fist to his mouth, And whuted whutès three; Half a hundred good ban-dogs Came running the friar unto. |
| He took his bow into his hand, It was made of a trusty tree, With a sheaf of arrows at his belt, To the Fountains Dale went he. |
‘Here’s for every man of thine a dog, And I my self for thee!’ — ‘Nay, by my faith,’ quoth Robin Hood, ‘Friar, that may not be.’ |
| And coming unto Fountain Dale, No further would he ride; There was he aware of a curtal friar, Walking by the water-side. |
Two dogs at once to Robin Hood did go, T’ one behind, the other before; Robin Hood’s mantle of Lincoln green Off from his back they tore. |
| The friar had on a harness good, And on his head a cap of steel, Broad sword and buckler by his side, And they became him weel. |
And whether his men shot east or west, Or they shot north or south, The curtal dogs, so taught they were, They kept their arrows in their mouth. |
| Robin Hood lighted off his horse, And tied him to a thorn: ‘Carry me over the water, thou curtal friar, Or else thy life’s forlorn.’ |
‘Take up thy dogs,’ said Little John, ‘Friar, at my bidding be.’— ‘Whose man art thou,’ said the curtal friar, ‘Comes here to prate with me?’ |
| The friar took Robin Hood on his back, Deep water he did bestride, And spake neither good word nor bad, Till he came at the other side. |
‘I am Little John, Robin Hood’s man, Friar, I will not lie; If thou take not up thy dogs soon, Ile take up them and thee.’ |
| Lightly leapt Robin Hood off the friar’s back; The friar said to him again, ‘Carry me over this water, fine fellow, Or it shall breed thy pain.’ |
Little John had a bow in his hand, He shot with might and main; Soon half a score of the friar’s dogs Lay dead upon the plain. |
| Lightly leapt the friar off Robin Hood’s back; Robin Hood said to him again, ‘Carry me over this water, thou curtal friar, Or it shall breed thy pain.’ |
‘Hold thy hand, good fellow,’ said the curtal friar, ‘Thy master and I will agree; And we will have new orders taken, With all the haste that may be.’ |
| The friar took Robin Hood on’s back again, And stept up to the knee; Till he came at the middle stream, Neither good nor bad spake he. |
‘If thou wilt forsake fair Fountains Dale, And Fountains Abbey free, Every Sunday throughout the year, A noble shall be thy fee. |
| And coming to the middle stream, There he threw Robin in: ‘And chuse thee, chuse thee, fine fellow, Whether thou wilt sink or swim!’ |
‘And every holy day throughout the year, Changed shall thy garment be, If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham, And there remain with me.’ |
| Robin Hood swam to a bush of broom, The friar to a wicker wand; Bold Robin Hood is gone to shore, And took his bow in hand. |
This curtal friar had kept Fountains Dale Seven long years or more; There was neither knight, lord, nor earl Could make him yield before. |
|
One of his best arrows under his belt |
|
Slowly vanishing from view..
The site really should be better looked after and could make a good local project if the site could be bought from the local landowner to avoid trespass. However, I have been unable to find an old photo or illustration to suggest what the structure looked like when in best order (according to local historian Mr. Richards there is not one). Something needs to be done soon as even in the last year the iron railings which once surrounded the site have been removed. It would be sad to see this noted spring, whatever its provenance, fall to vandals and apathy. Sign up below to show your support.
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