Category: Healing Wells

Healing wells, mineral springs and spas are all found under this heading.

Sulphur Well, Earlston, Berwickshire

megalithix

Healing Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NT 6122 3746?

Also Known as:

  1. Verter Well

Archaeology & History

The old Sulphur Well…?

This once important medicinal spring was, sadly, lost to the world after countless centuries sometime in the early-to-mid-1800s. It was one of at least four Verter Wells, as local dialect described them, i.e., Virtue or curative wells, all in or around the parish of Earlston (or Earlstoun of olde).  It’s exact location would seem to have been forgotten, but based on the one and only description of the place—“in order that the knowledge…may not be lost”, said the writer, of it being “about a mile to the south of the Whitecleuch Well”, we come across, on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area of 1862, a ‘Spring’ of water some ¾-mile south of the Whitecleuch which may have been the place in question.  Another contender could be a ‘Well’ on the same map, but it’s nearly 1½ miles from the Whitecleuch, so I think the first one is more likely.

It was a Well of some considerable renown back in the day, as local writer James Wood (1891) told us:

“The water of this well, which came bubbling up in the heathery moor, was strongly impregnated with sulphur, and the late James Weatherstone, farmer of Shielfield, always attributed his cure of a serious internal complaint to his drinking, copiously every morning, of the water which he said ‘‘just tasted like gunpowder.”  About fifty years ago, however, this moor was ‘taken in’, and the medicinal spring fell a victim to the drainer.”

References:

  1. Wood, James, “Verter Wells,” in History of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club, volume 14, 1891.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 

Chapel Lane Well, Crawshawbooth, Rossendale, Lancashire

megalithix

Healing Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SD 8136 2585

Archaeology & History

The name of this seemingly lost site—Chapel Lane Well—suggests it may have possessed that traditional ‘holy’ association, but neither custom nor history has bedecked us with information to give certainty to such an idea.  Even the name of the road along which it was found was one ascribed only by local folk in the 19th Century, for the old maps show us it to have been Goodshaw Lane—but the locals in this neck o’ the woods preserved many an old way that fell foul of the boring Industrialist writers of that age.  Except for one, thankfully!

J.M. Mather was a true ambling rambler like my self, wandering off-path, in all weathers, and dreaming by the chimes of swirling waters in stream and spring alike, moving betwixt the roars of biting gales in wintry heights and quietudes of moorland nights gazing at falling stars.  And thankfully his pen left us with a smattering of old tales from the tongues of local folk not considered worthy by the Industrialists and christian historians of his time.  Mather, instead, wrote of the actual history of Rossendale: of the ways of the people and moods of the hills…

The Chapel Lane Well was on the left-side of the road as you head up to Goodshaw Chapel, just where the track leads off up to Folly Bank Farm: “a quaint looking house”, even in his day!  It was, he said, where “the legend of the Chapel Snake still survives.”

“Many years ago, when people came from the village beyond to draw from its waters, in the dusk of one evening an hysterical girl declared she saw a white snake in the liquid depths. The alarm soon spread, and for days none dared to approach, until the want of water and the toil entailed by having to wander further for it, led to a solemn conclave of villagers.  Amongst those composing it was a doughty sexton, who, seeing the fears of his friends, declared that he would shoot the snake. Armed with his gun, he cautiously approached. Seeing what he supposed to be the snake, lying in serpentine form, white upon the waters, he fired ; but when a careful inspection was made, the object of delusion was found to be a knitted garter. This, in the depths of the well, and seen by an hysterical girl, had led to the panic, the heroism of a sexton, and the final amusement of the neighbourhood.  The well is still there, and in use.”

But some time after Mather wrote those words, the waters were blocked and it has long since fallen into history.  As if to compensate and still flowing, are waters not far from here that were known as the abode of the great and dreadful fairy creature known as Jenny Greenteeth!

References:

  1. Mather, J. Marshall, Rambles Round Rossendale – volume 2, J.J. Riley: Rawtenstall 1894.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 

Whooping Cough Well, Strathtay, Perthshire

megalithix

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NN 915 543

Also Known as:

  1. Sput na-fruith-chasd

Getting Here

Locale of the Whooping Cough Well

Park up at the red phone-box in Strathtay village (by the road junction) and walk east  along the road (slightly downhill) for less than 50 yards, then turn left and walk up the track.  70-80 yards up, keep your eyes peeled for the distinct footpath on your right (don’t head up to the house) that runs into the trees and keep walking uphill for literally ½-mile where you’ll reach the gorgeous overgrown scented orchard of Tullypowrie farmhouse on the left. Keep walking along the path past the farm and, if you fancy, cross the burn (stream) anywhere hereby.  The well is on the other side of the burn, somewhere…..

Archaeology & History

We ventured up here recently to look at several sites, but when we came to find this long lost well we were hindered severely by the mass of vegetation that was teeming with ticks—so thought it most sensible to come back here again at the end of winter when we’d have a clean slate of landscape to look at. (the ticks have got fucking awful in this neck o’ the woods in recent years!)  It has almost fallen out of history, with no one writing about the place for more than a hundred years, yet it was a place of considerable importance in the folk traditions of Strathtay.

In some previously unpublished notes written by the historian Charles Robertson sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, he told of a lady from Pitlochry called Mrs Anderson who informed him of an important water source known locally as Sput na-fruith-chasd which,

“comes spouting out of a high rock on the east side of the Tullypowrie Burn opposite Tullypowrie farm, and was resorted to of old for the cure of whooping cough.  The sufferer who came here and drank of the water always got better too.”

It was described by the Logierait schoolmaster James Kennedy (1927) as one of “the three most important (wells) in the Tay Valley”—and there are a lot of wells in the Tay Valley!

There’s a slight discrepancy regarding the exact location of the well: whilst Mr Robertson’s notes told that it was found “opposite Tullypowrie farm”, in Hugh Mitchell’s (1923) survey of local antiquities he told that,

“On the oppsite side of the burn from the mill there is a drip well, the water from which was for long regarded as a certain cure for whooping cough”—

which would place the well a hundred yards or so further upstream. (the very low-lying walls of the mill can just be discerned a short distance above the farmhouse) I’m sure that a good search of the area after Winter has laid the vegetation to rest will tell us one way or the other precisely where this curative well is hiding.

Across the burn from the well is the barely visible ruins of an old church: Roman Catholic according to tradition, with a singular short carved cross standing on the low remains of its eastern wall.  Close to this, but now in the field a few hundred yards west, was the curious bullaun stone known as Clach na Buidseach, or Witchcraft Stone.  This bullaun would seem to have been used in rites related to the Whooping Cough Well, but the precise nature of these rites has been lost.

References:

  1. Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
  2. Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
  3. Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 

Kinkhoast Well, Comrie, Perthshire

megalithix

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NN 76180 23988

Also Known as:

  1. Kingcough Well
  2. Kinkhost Well
  3. Whooping Cough Well

Getting Here

The track to the Well

From Comrie village, take the long winding steep road up past the Devil’s Cauldron towards Glen Lednock.  After 1½ miles the road begins to level-out and you come out from the trees and about 400 yards along there’s a dirt-track on your left.  Park here!  OK, now walk further along the road (not the dirt-track) for less than 100 yards and take the footpath up the slope (if this is blocked—it shouldn’t be!—you can walk further along until your reach the next track on your left).  Go up this footpath for 200 yards till you reach the track by the large bend; and then walk up it for another 200 yards where there’s another large bend.  On your right, past the solitary big rock, you’ll see the sign…

Archaeology & History

Sign of the Kinkhoast Well

A little-known healing well that all but fell out of existence until, thankfully, some local folks recently decided to revive it.  A sign stands above the back of this spring of water as it emerges from the Earth telling you that it’s the Kinkhoast Well.  Its clear waters form into a very small pool, wherein are dozen of small white pebbles and and quartz pieces, very smooth and obviously worn by decades, if not centuries, of local folk giving the spirit of these waters—the genius loci—and offering in exchange for its healing virtues in the hope that it cures them of the whooping cough, of which this well is renowned.

It’s one of many whooping cough wells that are found in the Perthshire hills—and most are actually large boulders with hollows into which the rainwater collects and it is this that is used medicinally and not necessarily the spring water.  A curious thing indeed…. and I’ve come across Highland folk who were taken to them when they were young children who’ve told me that their whooping cough was subsequently cured!  Intriguingly, there is a large boulder just below this well, upon whose top is a natural bowl in which rainwater collects—and although I can find nothing specific telling of such a tradition here, above Comrie, it’s possible that the relationship between stones and wells, found at other places in the Highlands, also existed here.

Small pool full of white offering stones
Well & stone in close attendance

The name Kinkhoast itself (and variables thereof) is a Scottish dialect word, found from Galloway and into the Highlands.  Jamieson (1880) describes it as literally “hooping cough”, with a brief note on the disease being cured by water drank from a shell.  Meanwhile, in Grant & Morison’s (1960) massive work, they give numerous examples of the term, most of which relate to the same “whooping cough”, with some examples of folk remedies to abate the disease, including one of parents sending their children to take a drink from the “Kinker Steen Wall”—in that case from the parish of Logie.  Examples of the very same tradition are known at other kinkhost sites.  Check the place out when you’re in the area—and rest for a while to drink in the beautiful views…

References:

  1. Anonymous, “Comrie Folklore – Kingcough Well,” in Crieff & District Post, no.31, August 2012.
  2. Grant, William & Morison, David D. (eds), The Scottish National Dictionary – volume 5, SNDA: Edinburgh 1960.
  3. King, M.D., “Kingarth (Comrie Parish): Healing Well,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, 1992.
  4. Jamieson, John, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language – volume 3, Alexander Gardner: Glasgow 1880.

Acknowledgements:  Big thanks to Paul Hornby for getting us here – and for use of his photo.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Tabar Ruadh, Heaste, Skye

megalithix

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NG 66091 19694

Also Known as:

  1. Chalybeate Well

Archaeology & History

Chalybeate Well, Heaste road

Highlighted on the earliest Ordnance Survey maps of the island, roughly halfway along the Broadford to Heaste road on the right (west) side you will come across the Tabar Ruadh (Gaelic for “Red Well”).  For many generations at this point was a Chalybeate well where villagers would stop and drink in a pewter mug from outlet of cast iron pipe which connected to the stone well some nine feet from the road.  It was a major stopping point for their horses and ponies to take a drink too.

This set up was functioning in the early 1980’s.  At that time I talked to Heaste locals who remembered fishermen from their village taking bottles of this water to pregnant women in the village of Elgol.  It was known then for it’s healing properties; this was the early 20th century.  The pewter mug was stolen and with road widening and the pipe removed, the site was becoming increasingly overgrown and in danger of being lost for ever.

Site shown on 1881 map
Water under the well cover

For the last fifteen years I have been walking this road and had made it a determination to find this well.  Success this summer! — and the hidden overgrown well was cleaned out a new steel pipe added.  Chalybeate water now flows and a wooden box is at the roadside with a tin mug.  On a wet roadside ditch this red water is very obvious where it joins the road.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© John Gilbertson, The Northern Antiquarian

King’s Ring Well, Enfield, Middlesex

megalithix

Healing Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – TQ 3496 9623

Also Known as:

  1. King Ring Well
  2. Tim Ringer’s Well

Archaeology & History

Site shown on 1879 map

Highlighted on the 1879 Ordnance Survey map, on the south-side of Southbury Road close to Ponders End, this curiously-named water source has a somewhat mundane history to it.  It’s likely that an old stone conduit that was shown on John Ogilby’s 1698 road map of the area is the King’s Ring Well—although it hadn’t acquired that name at the time.  It was described for the first time in Robinson’s (1823) classic work, located “on the south side of Gouldsdown-lane,”—which later became known as Nag’s Head Lane and today is Southbury Road.  Anyhow, he continued telling us that here,

“there is a moat dividing two square fields.  In the first there are remains of stables, barns, &c. and hollows, as of vaults, among the trees.  There is a deep well, bricked, called “King Ring” or “Tim Ringer well,” (Timothy Ring was an opulent farmer who occupied the lands; and it is supposed from his arrogant manner obtained the nic-name of “King Ring.”) whose spring, it is said, never freezes nor dries up, and the water is esteemed very efficacious in disorders of the eyes.”

Robinson noted that the local drovers, “who from being so much exposed to the dust are subject to sore eyes, frequently turn up the lane to use the water, and there have been instances of children being cured of sore eyes by it after the measles.”  He also alluded to a tradition that a religious house or convent once stood hereby, although he never obtained accurate information to prove his idea.  If that was the case, the site may have been a holy well.  The medicinal properties of the waters were repeated in Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary (1848); and again in Hodson & Ford’s (1873) subsequent survey of Enfield, emphasizing that it was “considered infallible as a remedy for inflammation of the eyes.”  Sadly the well has long since been destroyed.

References:

  1. Hodson, George H. & Ford, Edward, A History of Enfield in the County of Middlesex, J.H. Meyers: Enfield 1873.
  2. Hope, Robert Charles, Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Elliott Stock: London 1893.
  3. Robinson, William, The History and Antiquities of Enfield – volume 1, John Nichols: London 1823.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Mineral Well, Hickling, Nottinghamshire

megalithix

Healing Well (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SK 692 293

Archaeology & History

At the rear east-side of st. Luke’s church in what was once the old stable yard at the back of the rectory, a large pond can be seen.  In the 19th Century it was much smaller than it’s present size—and in the centuries before that, it took the simple form of a clear spring of water, known by local folk simply as the Mineral Spring.  The medicinal properties of the waters seem to have been forgotten…

References:

  1. Wadkin, H.M., Hickling: Reflections of Yesteryear, Sherwood Free Press 1991.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Acrehowe Well, Baildon Moor, West Yorkshire

megalithix

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – SE 14733 40596

Also Known as:

  1. Acre Well

Archaeology & History

Up there, in the rushes…

First illustrated on the 1852 Ordnance Survey map of the area and now only visible as a small marshy area, this once fast-flowing well gained its name from the old stone cross (very probably a standing stone before that) four hundred feet west of here, called Acrehowe Cross, now gone.  It is possible that this ‘cross’ gave the well a local reputation as a holy well.  A solitary path once led to the well, whose waters rise up through a coal seam giving the place its medicinal qualities, which have sadly been forgotten. Up and down this path towards Baildon village one would have regularly met a local character in the 19th century known as “Dinnis” (his real name was Joseph Halliday) who, along with his partner would take ‘kits’ (a large bucket with parallel sides) of water from the well into the village and sell it for a halfpenny each.

Site shown on 1852 map

Later in the 19th century, a cottage was built here (known as Acre Cottage) and gained its water supply from the well.  This was curtailed with the construction of the Baildon Moor reservoirs by the roadside, which took the water from both here and the nearby Spink Well (over the hill on the far side of the golf course), leaving us with little more than the trickling water we see today, just a little further down from its original location.

References:

  1. la Page, John, The Story of Baildon, William Byles: Bradford 1951.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Salt Well, Allington, Lincolnshire

megalithix

Holy Well:  Ordnance Grid Reference – SK 85662 39798

Getting Here

Salt Well on the 1887 map

Nice ‘n easy: take the Sedgebrook Road south out of Allington village and, after a few hundred yards, just as you go past Peach Lane, keep your eyes peeled and look into the shrubs that are set back a few yards on the left-hand side of the road.  Just there you’ll see a small circular stone structure with a small plague in front of it.  That’s the Salt Well.

Archaeology & History

Salt Well by the roadside

Highlighted on the early Ordnance Survey maps of the area, this chalybeate spring was known as both the Salt Well and Holy Well.  Mentioned in Ian Thompson’s (1999) work, the waters here arise in a three-foot high pillbox-shaped structure, set into the grass verge just off the roadside between Allington and Sedgebrook.  On the early OS-maps it is shown to have originally been on the opposite side of the road.   The earliest reference to the well is from 1226 CE and, thereafter, a number of 16th Century wills are recorded making bequests for the maintenance of the well suggesting its considerable importance in bygone centuries—perhaps because it was the only local well that did not dry-up, no matter how severe the drought.

The small plaque at the side of the well states, “This spring has been a water source since the 13th Century and now remains a village landmark.”  An analysis of the waters here in 1990 revealed very low levels of iron but noted a high concentration of sodium sulphate.

References:

  1. Thompson, Ian, Lincolnshire Springs and Well, Bluestone: Scunthorpe 1999.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Sunnybank Well, Hawksworth, West Yorkshire

megalithix

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – SE 16228 40696

Getting Here

Sunnybank Well spring

My walk up to this place took me off the main A6038 Hollins Hill road, across from the petrol station and up the scruffy disused road to the hamlet of Tong Park, bending round the houses to the right when they appear.  Keep along this old track, then veer right, down the slope and along the footpath and into the trees under the railway arches, keeping on until you reach the lake on your left.  At the end of the lake, cross the bridge and follow the footpath as it bends to the left and into the trees.  You’ll go over a stile and then about 50 yards along, the stream that crosses the path emerges from a crack in the rocks on your right.  You’re here!

Archaeology & History

Site shown on 1852 map

All history and tradition of this site seems long gone. It was shown on the 1852 Ordnance Survey map of the region and doubtless receives its name from the location, as the spring of water emerges from beneath the sloping embankment which is a bit of a sun-trap in Spring and Summer.  It makes sense.  Although I can find no reference to any medicinal attributes, the waters of Sunnybank Well are cold, fresh and drinkable.

References:

  1. Shepherd, Val, Historic Wells in and Around Bradford, HOAP: Wymeswold 1994.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian