King’s Ring Well, Enfield, Middlesex

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 BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

Bishop’s Well, Tottenham, Middlesex

Holy Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – TQ 332 911

Also Known as:

  1. My Lady’s Hole

Archaeology & History

Long since gone after drainage operations on Tottenham Cemetery made the waters dry-up, this was one of several holy wells in the Tottenham area.  Its history has been described in various old tomes, but the most definitive is found in William Robinson’s (1840) classic on the parish of Tottenham, when the well was still visible.  He told us:

“There is a spring which issues from the side of a small hillock on the south side of the Moselle, nearly opposite the Vicarage, leading thence to the Church, called Bishop’s Well.  This spring was formerly considered famous for many strange and wonderful cures performed on the diseased by the use of this water.  It has been for some years neglected, but of late the owner of the field in which this well is, had it cleansed, and planted some trees round it, and put up posts and rails to prevent the cattle treading down the sides of it.  It is said that the water of this well never freezes.  In former times this well was in great repute from the purity of its water.  The ladies in the vicinity of it were accustomed to send their servants in the morning and evening for water for their tea, from which circumstance it was for many years known by the name of “My Lady’s Hole.”  The water of this well is not only esteemed for its medicinal qualities, but particularly for curing disorders of the eye.

“There were formerly many other springs about the village, especially one which issued out of the hill on which the Church stands; and another in Spottons Wood otherwise Spottons Grove, on the north side of Lordship Lane, which in the fifteenth century was of considerable notoriety; but none of which have in former times been so much frequented and held in such repute as Bishop’s Well.”

(Please note: the grid-reference for this site is an approximation)

References:

  1. Foord, Alfred Stanley, Springs, Streams and Spas of London: History and Association, T. Fisher Unwin: London 1910.
  2. Hope, Robert Charles, Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Elliott Stock: London 1893.
  3. Robinson, William, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Tottenham, Nichols & Sons: London 1840.
  4. Sunderland, Septimus, Old London Spas, Baths and Wells, John Bale: London 1915.
  5. Thornbury, Walter & Walford, Edward, Old and New London – volume 5, Cassell: London 1878.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian