Druid’s Well, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire

Sacred Well:  OS Grid Reference – SP 10162 97991

Also Known as:

1. St. Mary’s Well

Archaeology & History

Highlighted on the 1884 Ordnance Survey map of the region and located beyond the far eastern end of Braceridge Lake, this legendary well has seen better days.  A small well-house once covered the spring, but all we have left today is little more than a rectangular stone-lined concrete hole-in-the-ground where the waters collect (hopefully some local folk can bring it back to life).  But in the 19th century it was well known, much frequented and maintained.

Not much seems to be known about its mythic history, as the traditions surrounding its dual pagan-christian dedication seem to have been forgotten.  When the local writer Tom Burgess (1893) came to explore its history, he merely wrote:

“How it came to be called the Druids’ Well is not known, it is scarcely necessary to say that it can have no Druidical connection; it is very probable, however, that it was dedicated to Saint Mary long before the dam of Bracebridge Pool was made by Ralph Bracebridge in the reign of Henry V.”

Jeremy Harte (2008) suggested that this well’s druidic association may have come from a local man, William Hutton who, in the middle of the 18th century, “speculated on a druid sanctuary near Sutton Coldfield.”  But before Hutton, the 17th century Staffordshire topographer, Robert Plot, suggested that an arch-druid held residence on Barr Beacon, which is less than three miles west of here.  This idea was echoed by Midgley (1904) who told that Barr Beacon “is supposed to have been a Druidical shrine.”  Just over three miles to the northwest, the Druid’s Heath (a place-name derived, apparently, from an old family) at Aldridge also had its own array of folklore which, perhaps, may have had something to do with this well’s association.  When Roy Palmer (1976) wrote about the Druid’s Well in his folklore survey, he told that Sutton Coldfield,

“is said once to have been the seat of the arch-druid of Britain; perhaps this was his well, which was later christianized.”

So much to choose from…

References:

1. Bord, Janet, Holy Wells in Britain – A Guide, HOAP: Wymeswold 2008.
2. Bracken, L., History of the Forest and Chase of Sutton Coldfield, Simpkin Marshall: London 1860.
3. Burgess, J.T., Historic Warwickshire, Simpkin Marshall: Lond 1893.
4. Harte, Jeremy, English Holy Wells – volume 2, Heart of Albion press: Wymeswold 2008.
5. Midgley, W., A Short History of the Town and Chase of Suton Coldfield, Midland Counties Herald: Birmingham 1904.
6. Palmer, Roy, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Batsford: London 1976.

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