by Ian Taylor

There have been some developments in the saga of the rediscovered St. Helen’s Well, Chapel Hill, Pocklington. A brief outline of the situation was given in Source (First Series) Issue 3, giving details of my application to the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission.

Plans are at present being prepared for a week-long Festival of the Arts to be held in Pocklington at the end of May. The previous such festival was eleven years ago. The chairperson of the local Arts Society Committee, a Mrs Morgan, has expressed great interest in my attempt to have the threatened site Scheduled, and I was invited to address the next meeting of the Committee on the subject of the well, which I duly did. As a result, Committee members decided to write letters to the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission in support of my application. They will also bring the matter to the attention of the Town Council, and it is hoped they too will lend their support to the application. This is the kind of local pressure that could effectively rouse the Commission to action. Indeed, the Festival of the Arts seems to have come up at a timely point, as, with some luck, my book on the Pocklington ley complex should be published around the same time. This will, I hope, make some impact locally, drawing attention to the plight of a number of sacred sites in the area, in addition to the St. Helen’s Well.

I am further informed that Dr. B. Whitwell of the Humberside Archaeological Unit, in response to a request from the Commission, upon their receipt of my original application, has also recommended that the well should be Scheduled. Further reports on the progress of the application will appear in future issues of Source.

Text © Ian Taylor (1986)

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