Holy Well (destroyed): OS Grid reference – SX 3285 8477
Archaeology & History
Site of well on 1884 map
Very little is known about this holy well on the north-western side of town that was apparently destroyed sometime in the 19th century; for when the Ordnance Survey lads visited here in 1882, they found no running water but only the location of where it had been and they indicated this on their 1884 map of the area, marked as “Site of.”
It was first mentioned in a short topographical notice in 1582, which told that the “Magden Well in the Quarrie Haye”—along with another well—was “found to be in decay.” (Peter 1885) Then, when the Ordnance Survey lads resurveyed the area again in 1951, once more they could find no trace of it.
References:
Peter, Richard, The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved, W. Brendon: Plymouth 1885.
Acknowledgements: Big thanks for use of the early edition OS-map in this site profile, Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Highlighted on the 1882 OS-map several hundred yards north of St. Michael’s church, this site seems to have fallen back to Earth as no remains of it have been found in recent visits. It was described in Charles Henderson’s (1914) notes as the “holy well at Barton Farm”, and was visited by J. Meyrick (1982) in April of 1980, who told that it could be found by taking “the track immediately east of Lawhitton church which runs through the farm of Mr Lancaster… After going through the yard proceed ¼ mile down track to the valley where you reach a stream and the Well is on the right.” It was sought after by Cheryl Straffon (1998) but following her visit to find the Well she told that “there was nothing now to see except a kind of natural basin by the small bridge.”
References:
Henderson, Charles, Notebooks of Parochial Antiquities, Unpublished MS 1914.
Meyrick, J., A Pilgrims Guide to the Holy Wells of Cornwall, Falmouth 1982.
Straffon, Cheryl, Fentynyow Kernow: In Search of Cornwall’s Holy Wells, Meyn Mamvro: Penzance 1998.
Acknowledgements: Big thanks for use of the early edition OS-map in this site profile, Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Tumulus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – TQ 861 862
Archaeology & History
Somewhere beneath the modern housing estate immediately east of Chalkwell Park was once a large prehistoric burial mound. It was included in Wymer & Brown’s (1995) archaeological gazetteer (albeit at the wrong spot) without comment, but their reference led me to an early description of the place by Philip Benton (1867) whose description gave us the best info we have of the place. He wrote:
“To the east of the present mansion, at the north-west comer of a field called Fishponds, is a tumulus or mound, probably Celtic. This was first opened about thirty years ago, when bones, a few coins, and a piece of chain were discovered. Since which period about eight feet of earth has been removed from the summit, when more bones were found, but as they were not inspected by any one competent to give an opinion, it is impossible to say whether they were those of man or beast. The mound is still about four feet above the surrounding soil, and would probably repay further search.”
Wymer and Brown listed the site as being an “early Bronze Age” monument.
References:
Benton, Philip, The History of Rochford Hundred – volume 2, Harrington: Rochford 1867.
Wymer, J.J. & Brown, N.R., Excavations at North Shoebury, East Anglian Archaeology: Chelmsford 1995.
Holy Well (destroyed): OS Grid reference – TQ 3337 8245
Archaeology & History
Holywell Lane on 1877 map
First described at the beginning of the 12th century as “fons qui dicitur Haliwelle“, these sacred waters were thereafter described in a variety of documents before eventually, in 1382, giving its name to the road on which it was found. When the topographer John Stow (1603) described the well—along with those of St. Clement’s and Clerken Well—it was once “sweet, wholesome, and clear” and “frequented by scholars and youths of the city in the summer evenings.” However, in his day it was already in decline, as he told that the “Holy well is much decayed and spoiled, with filthiness purposely laid there, for the heightening of the ground for garden plots.”
The history of the site was mentioned in John Noorthouck’s (1773) survey, where he told us:
“In the parish are two prebends, and part of a third, belonging to St Paul’s cathedral, in the city of London: The first dominated by Eald-Street, or Old Street, received that appellation from the Saxons being part of the Roman military way: the second, which had been a separate village for many years, by the name of Hochestone, vulgarly Hoxton, likewise itself to be of a Saxon origin: the third called Haliwell, had its name from a vicinal fountain, which, for the salubrity of its water, had the epithet Holy conferred on it.
In King John’s Court, Holywell-lane, are to be found the ruins of the priory of St. John Baptist, of Benedictine nuns, founded by Robert the son of Gelranni, prependary of Haliwell, and confirmed by charter of Richard I in the year1189. It was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VII by Sir Thomas Lovell, knight of the garter; who was there buried: and the following ditty was in consequence painted in most of the windows.
“All the nuns of Holywell,
“Pray for the soul of Thomas Lovell.”
The complete demise of the well occurred in the early part of the 19th century and efforts to locate its original position have proved troublesome. Indeed, the modern Holywell Lane would seem to be little more than an approximation of its whereabouts. It was an issue explored at some length in the great A.S. Foord’s (1910) magnum opus, who wrote:
“In recent times efforts have been made to locate the well, and some of the results communicated to Notes and Queries. A Mr. R. Clark drew attention, through the medium of that publication, to an article in The Builder of September 19, 1896, which states that ”the ancient holy well should be looked for in the area between Bateman’s Row and New Inn Yard and behind the Board School in Curtain Road, that is to say, west of New Inn Street.” This is all very circumstantial, but the writer bases his statement on the survey by Peter Chassereau, taken in 1745, in which the supposed position of the well is marked by a cross and the words “Ye well from which the liberty derives its name.” It should be borne in mind however that, as pointed out by Colonel W. F. Prideaux, Chassereau did not make his survey till more than two hundred years had elapsed from the date of the dissolution of the Nunnery (1539); the position of the well could therefore have been only a matter of tradition. Another contributor to Notes and Queries (8th Series, May 22, 1897), quotes an article in the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (vol. iv., 3rd series, p. 237), by Mr. E. W. Hudson, who says that the well of the priory was situate on the south side of what is known as Bateman’s Row, but was formerly (before 1799) called Cash’s Alley, near Curtain Road. This agrees substantially with Mr. Clark’s statement. Mr. Lovegrove, writing in 1904, says: “The well itself is to be found in a marble-mason’s yard in Bateman’s Row, but is covered over.” The same writer notes that of the Nunnery buildings only a piece of stone wall about 50 feet long, in a timber yard at 186, High Street, Shoreditch, is now left.”
References:
Foord, Alfred Stanley, Springs, Streams and Spas of London: History and Association, T. Fisher Unwin: London 1910.
Gover, J.E.B., Mawer, Allen & Stenton, F.M., The Place-Names of Middlesex, Cambridge University Press 1942.
Lovegrove, G.H., “Holywell Priory, Shoreditch,” in Home Counties, volume 6, 1904.
Mills, A.D., A Dictionary of London Place-Names, Oxford University Press 2001.
Noorthouck, John, A New History of London, Including Westminster and Southwark, R. Baldwin: London 1773.
Stow, John, A Survey of London, John Windet: London 1603.
Sunderland, Septimus, Old London Spas, Baths and Wells, John Bale: London 1915.
Wood, Alexander, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of London, Burns & Oates: London 1874.
Through Baildon town centre, take the road onto Baildon Moor, but instead of turning left up to Baildon Hill, keep straight on the Hawksworth road and 100 yards along you’ll see a car-park is on the right-hand side, just before you start going downhill. From here, walk down the road a couple of hundred yards until you see the footpath (keep your eyes peeled!) turning right towards The Whitehouse, and from there take the footpath dead straight down to the woods below. Cross the stream, turn right, then immediately left uphill by the wall-side. Shortly before reaching the top you’ll see a large triangular sloping slab of rock with a tree at its top. That’s it! Alternatively you can come via Hawksworth village by following the directions to the Hawksworth Spring (02) carving, which is just 10 yards east of this one. Easy!
Archaeology & History
Sketch of carving (after Hedges 1986)Note the faint cup, top-right
This minimalist design is best seen from above the adjacent rock which, in times gone by, was attached to this very same stone. The main aspect of the carving are the two short rows of three cups, running almost alongside each other, in a likeness which my compatriot Liz Sykes said “was like some animal footprints.” It’s not a bad description to be honest (this same motif is found on a companion petroglyph just a few yards to the east: the Hawksworth Spring [2] stone). If you follow the direction of the “animal tracks” to the western end of the stone, you’ll see another isolated cup with a faint incomplete ring around it. You can just make it out on the photo to the right. Another single cup-mark seems apparent two-thirds the way down the stone.
References:
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Liz Sykes for her renowned cleaning skills!
Cup-Marked Stone (missing): OS Grid Reference – SE 1687 3868
Archaeology & History
Sketch of the missing cup-marked stone
This carving was originally located somewhere close to the old disused Brackenhall Mills on the edge of Thackley, just before you drop down to Thackley tunnel. It was uprooted sometime in the 1950s and taken several miles away to the Cartwright Hall Museum at Manningham, Bradford, where it sat outdoors behind some fencing for many a-year, accompanied by the large fossil of an ancient tree.
I first saw it there when I lived close by in 1981, in the days before I had such a thing as a camera. Hence I only have this scruffy old sketch of the design, which I did without adding any notes to help remind me which carving it was! So this sketch has sat, all-but-forgotten, on a scrap of paper since then, until I recently sussed out which carving it was!
The stone itself was akin to a very large portable rock, with a simplistic design consisting of at least nine cup-marks cut into one of the rounded faces. One account of the stone suggested there may have been a possible incomplete ring around one of the cups. When I went back to see the stone about 20 years ago, it had gone. So I called into the adjacent museum to inquire what had become of it. The curator (or whoever it was) that I spoke with told me that the stone had been put into a box and placed in the cellars, but refused to let me see it. I asked to make an appointment to see the stone and he refused that too. It has not been seen since. Does anyone know what’s become of it?
References:
Keighley, J.J., “The Prehistoric Period,” in Faull & Moorhouse’s, West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey to AD 1500 (WYMCC: Wakefield 1981).
Take the A59 road from Harrogate and Skipton and at the very top of the moors near the Gill Head Enclosures, take the small Kex Ghyll road up past the disused quarry works north for a mile or so. At the junction go left for about 1½ miles where, on your left, is Burnt House farm. A hundred yards past here is a small spot to park on the right-hand side of the road, opposite the gate to Rocking Hall House (make sure you leave enough room for tractors to pass you!). Across the road is the track to Rocking Hall and, 2 miles along the track, look out for the copse of trees ½-mile NE. Head towards it and, as you get close to the wall, walk slowly downhill towards the stream where a single block of stone lives. You’ll find it!
Archaeology & History
Design from above
Rediscovered on Rocking Moor by Rod Chambers on August 15, 2023, this reasonably large sloping block of stone has between 21 and 24 cups cut quite deeply and scattered erratically into it, very similar to one some 200 yards to the northwest (Raven Stones carving 559). It seems pretty obvious that some of these cups were Nature’s handiwork, but have been modified by human hands. There’s nothing complex about it, but there may be a semi-circular arc around one of the cups, centre-left of the natural crack that cuts across the top of the stone, but this is very faint and could be just a trick of the eyes. Going there at sunrise and wetting the stone might tell us for sure.
Acknowledgements: Big thanks to Rod Chambers for use of his photo in this site profile.
Healing Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference –SE 1672 3866
Archaeology & History
Along the footpath below the family graveyard at Thackley, the great genealogist and industrial historian J.H. Turner (1878) told that, “at the right hand side of the wood, at the bottom, is Scout Willie’s Well, formerly noted for its medicinal properties” – though whatever curative aspects it possessed have long since been forgotten. It was also known as the Sweet Willie Well. I perused the woodlands here searching for the well in my younger days but could find no trace of it; nor is anything shown on the early OS-maps of the area.
References:
Turner, J. Horsfall, Idle Upper Chapel Registers and Graveyard Inscriptions, Bingley 1878.
Healing Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 45 21
Archaeology & History
The waters of the once-renowned Organn Well goes down in history as being one of the first wells in Britain whose waters were used in a town pump. Written minutes from an early council meeting described how people gathered in the market place to discuss the objective of making such a pump in the times of Queen Elizabeth 1, in 1571. It was completed a year later and, some 450 years on, this old relic can still be seen. The Well used to be found off Penny Lane (now Wakefield Road), some 4-500 yards to the southwest and as such it’s exact position has been difficult to locate. But the fact that the waters were piped such a distance strongly suggests that the water supply from the Well was damn good – and most probably damn refreshing too! The old charter told us, in that wonderfully dyslexic manner of the period,
“…that a conduit in the Markett Place with lead pipes leading to water from Organ Well to the said conduit shall bee cleansed and repayred at the charge and contribution of severall inhabitants of the Towne and espetially by those that fetch water from the same conduit. And according to the auncient custome of the said Towne, whoe shall not beare theire p’t of the chardge p’portionable to what water they from the same at the discretion of the Majo’ for the time being and his brethren shall be debarred from the benefitt of the said conduit except they shall be poore people. And likewise that none shall receive any water from the said conduite for to brewe or steep barley w’thall at such time or times as others have need the same for meat water and water to washe w’hall, but onely at such times as there is water to spare over and besides what is convenient for meat and washing.”
More than two hundred years later the water pump was in dire need of attention, as George Fox (1827) told:
“Being in a ruinous state about the year 1810 and the supplies of water being insufficient for the public use; a clause was inserted in the act of parliament… wherein the pump, its pipes, and all other appurtenances belonging to it were vested in the power of the commissioners of the streets, who where bound to see it kept in proper repair.”
And so the water from the Organn Well continued to supply the townsfolk.
The etymology of this well—along with another of the same name near Harrogate—truly puzzled me for a long time; that was until I came across, quite by accident, records from early texts on herbalism. As a result, it seems very likely that it derives its name from the old English ‘organe,’ which, according to Stracke (1974) and others relates to both varieties of the indigenous herb marjoram (Origanum vulgare and O.marjorana) — a grand medicinal plant that’s pretty common in northern England (I used to go out gathering it each year in my younger days). There were obviously profuse supplies of this herb growing in and around the well and, as all good herbalists will tell you, when they grow by an old spring or well, their medicinal properties are much better than normal. The waters and the plant obviously had a good symbiosis; or, as the old women who’d collect the waters and the herbs in days prior to the pump would have told us, “the spirits of the water here are good”…
References:
Fox, George, The History of Pontefract in Yorkshire, J.Fox: Pontefract 1827.
Padgett, Lorenzo, Chronicles of Old Pontefract, Oswald Homes: Pontefract 1905.
Stracke, J. Richard (ed.), The Laud Herbal Glossary, Rodopi: Amsterdam 1974.
Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – SE 0965 4797
Archaeology & History
In Ronald Morris’ (1989) gazetteer of British petroglyphs, he included this curious entry but gave no real details regarding its appearance or history. Listed by the Royal Commission lads, it would seem to have been located immediately south of the dismantled railway where it used to cross the Addingham-Ilkley road, but no one seems to have seen it either before or since Morris’ description. Any help regarding its whereabouts would be appreciated.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Prehistoric Rock Art of Great Britain: A Survey of All Sites Bearing Motifs more Complex than Simple Cup-marks,” in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 55, 1989.
