Lowlands Well, Wycoller, Lancashire

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – SD 9317 3944

Archaeology & History

The huge stone trough at the side of the Wycoller Beck further down than the old bridge had a pipe leading to it from a spring on the other side of the beck.  Cookson & Hindle (1974) told that this was “the only source of drinking water” — which wasn’t quite true.  In the old photo shown here, the groove in the supporting vertical stone once held a lid over the top of the trough, “to prevent animals, dead leaves, etc, from fouling it.”  In addition to the old photo shown here, the well is also illustrated in Folley’s Romantic Wycoller (1949) with two young girls drinking the running water.

References:

1. Bentley, John, Portrait of Wycoller, Nelson Local History Society 1975.
2. Cookson, Stanley & Hindle, Herbert, Wycoller Country Park, H. Hindle: Colne 1974.
3. Folley, E.W., Romantic Wycoller, Coulton & Co.: Nelson 1949.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian