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Posted: 15-01-2004 00:03 Post subject:

AFAIK 'Holy Wells' are wells or springs with an association with a Saint. They may or may not be on a pilgrimage route and have 'healing' properties. Some may be mineral springs or thermal in nature. They may also be believed to have been pagan originally and dedicated to a Saint when Christianity took over. Votive objects have been found within some IIRC

Posted: 15-01-2004 00:26 Post subject:

Some wells are particularly noted for their healing powers to do with eye or throat ailments. Others are said to be good for those suffering from mental problems. There used to be a custom in some parts of the UK of 'dressing' a well with pictures made from flowers - IIRC, this still goes on in some locations. At others, a strip of cloth is left tied to nearby bracken by any user who takes water from the well for healing purposes. For mental problems, the afflicted person has to sleep next to the well overnight as well as drink from it (I think I also recall at least one well where the person had to be lowered into it for teh cure to take place). And lastly, some wells are associated with healing powers for animals rather than humans.

Posted: 15-01-2004 02:17 Post subject:

Thanks guys. Sometimes I feel like I miss out on a lot of interesting folklore because I live in the states. I guess hearing about this stuff makes me feel more in touch with my ancestors.

Posted: 15-01-2004 11:15 Post subject:

Sertile, there are literally hundreds of them, maybe thousands! A number of churches may have been built round or in close proximity to holy wells originally... presumably evolving from a shrine that may have been on the spot in pre-christian times. There are two in the magnificent York Minster: St Peter's Well and Zouche Chapel Well.

And aren't 'wishing wells' meant to be a pre-Christian hangover? Flip in a coin (a memory of an offering to the water deity?) and make a wish (and what's a wish if it's not a sort of prayer). Smile

You may also be interested in Well Dressing

http://website.lineone.net/~wtimperley/index.html

this sit says it's unique to Derbyshire, but I think it goes on in neigbouring South Yorkshire, too.

Posted: 15-01-2004 12:08 Post subject:

Throwing coins into the water dates back to at least the Roman period - and at Bath some people also threw in lead defixio 'curse' tablets. You can see some at the British Museum (they're usually about remarkably mundane things - for example, cursing whoever stole someone's cloak). At Bath, the deity associated with the site was Sulis-Minerva, and admittedly this whole area is a large volcanic spring. But it seems that other wells and springs also sometimes recieved offerings (as has been pointed out). One very good example that springs (pun pun) to mind was a find of a metal shape depicting a 3-aspect woman, a photo of which was in FT some 10 or so years ago IIRC. I'm not sure if this find was dated. However, at other wells and springs, throwing in anything was specifically forbidden, so as not to spoil the water source. Some villages even take their name from a nearby healing well - for example, the hamlet of Eyewell Wales in Somerset (the name of this place seems to denote that the well was used by pre-Saxon Britons).

Posted: 15-01-2004 14:20 Post subject:

I'm sure I've said this elsewhere but it seems to me that throwing coins into the water is one of the strongest suggestions that some traditions and activities really do reach back to antiquity, even if many seemingly ancient practices only go back a century or two.

BBCi News 27/06/04

Posted: 23-07-2004 13:57 Post subject:

In the small village where I was raised there was an ancient and delapidated Tythe Barn a couple of fields across from the house, next to it was an area of marshy ground where a spring rose. Up until about the 40's, water from this spring was taken up to the church and used in baptisms. There was no legend of it being a ' Holy Well ' so far as I am aware, but it was obviously significant in the minds of locals of having some special properties hence its water being taken and used in the church.

Posted: 02-08-2004 15:37 Post subject:

Near where I grew up, there is a small village called Knapwell, where you can still see the remnants of what were once dense woodland areas. In the middle ages, there was a manor house and you can still see the ditch/moat that surrounded it, now very overgrown. In these woods, (and it must be how the village got it's name) is a natural well, but the colour of the water is red, due to the ferric oxide in the earth. Apparently, in the middle ages the waters of this well were considered medicinal.

Although now owned by the National Trust, its a very much neglected little spot, and hardly anyone who lives outside of the village knows of its existance.

I've been trying to find out more about its history, but there's nothing on the internet. It must have had, at one time some sort of sacred role, but there are no records.

I wondered if there were any other 'red wells' in the UK.

Posted: 03-08-2004 14:22 Post subject:

Glastonbury has the red well of Chalice Well Gardens.

Wouldn't water with that much iron in it actually be toxic?

Posted: 04-08-2004 06:38 Post subject:

Hippisliy-Coxe's '' Haunted Britain '' mentions a lot of wells, once I've thrown some more coffee in my eyes I'll have a little look through and see if it mentions any 'red' wells.......well after a quick squint, I can't find any so far, it mainly deals with the ' cures' and ' offerings ', interesting nonetheless, I'll browse more later.

Posted: 09-02-2005 19:51 Post subject:

From the print version of the Wolverhampton Express & Star, Tuesday, February 8, 2005:

Posted: 17-11-2005 16:33 Post subject: Site of pagan well to be restored

Posted: 17-11-2005 22:44 Post subject:

Good to hear!

WW

Posted: 21-01-2012 22:44 Post subject: