Healing Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – TQ 3496 9623
Also Known as:
- King Ring Well
- Tim Ringer’s Well
Archaeology & History

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:
- Hodson, George H. & Ford, Edward, A History of Enfield in the County of Middlesex, J.H. Meyers: Enfield 1873.
- Hope, Robert Charles, Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Elliott Stock: London 1893.
- 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