Springs & Wells (Holy, Sacred & Healing)

[brianellwood]

Springs,wells, rivers, lakes etc. all have significance in early religions.We all come from the primordial ocean, we're told.. so no water - no life. Around my area there are many springs bearing a saint's name since the christianisation of pagan worship and local and visiting pagans leave strips of cloth (clouties) hanging from the branches of the trees and bushes by the well or spring today. This practice has been recorded from around the world in ancient times, in particular in India.

 

[Anonymous]

[original title: thread renamed 11.8.02. to be more general.]

Could anyone enlighten me as to the whereabouts of the sacred well in St Ives, Cornwall?. I read about it in a guide book but it didn't give an exact location.

I have searched the internet to no avail. It may not even be called 'St Ias Well' but its along those lines.

I'm heading down that way soon and would love to track it down. Any info gratefully received!

 

[Anonymous]

i dont know..but thers a book by Quiller Cooch about him visting the wells in Cornwall... look it up... ill have a scout round

 

[Anonymous]

Quiller-Couch, M. & L. Ancient and holy wells of Cornwall; Clark, London:1894 (Republished Tamara, Liskeard: 1994. ISBN 0 9512822 5 5.)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks SJ, I thought you may be the man for the job! I'll check it out.....................

 

[Anonymous]

its listed here.......with a map too!

http://www.bath.ac.uk/lispring/sourcearchive/fs3/fs3lh1.htm

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.bath.ac.uk/lispring/sourcearchive/fs3/fs3lh1.htm

Thanks, I found this!

 

[Anonymous]

Ahaaa! Beat me to it

 

[Anonymous]

book on cornish wells listed here

http://www.geniusloci.co.uk/inspiration.htm

 

[rynner2]

Madron Holy Well and chapel is worth a visit.

I've only been once, on a gloomy winter's day - quite atmospheric!

 

[Anonymous]

I visited Madron well last time I was in Cornwall. I had had dermatitis on my hands for a 18 months previously. I had heard that Madron was supposed to have amazing results for skin conditions so I bathed my hands in the water & a week later no sign of it, & it hasn't been back!

Not sure if I really beleive in that kind of thing, but it was a last resort as no doctors seemed to be able to help. Perhaps its some kind of minerals in the water?

To be honest I don't really care if it was the well or what, it was just such a relief! But that's what sparked my interest in the wells.

Incredible places.

 

[Anonymous]

Wells are atmospheric places all right, even if they are nothing more than damp ditches often..many cornish wells are said to cure madness in a process that intails tipping "mad" people backwards into the water!... perhase the new NHS should try it.......

 

[Anonymous]

I originally read about Madron well in a Daphne Du Maurier book called 'Vanishing Cornwall', whereby she travelled the county with her son in the sixties recording the changing landscape.

Quite sad but 'well' worth a read (geddit?!!)

Also some fantastic info on local eccentrics, & the legend of Penrose(?) etc.

Erm........slightly off thread, but, I don't suppose either of you (Rynner or SJ) happen to know of any eligible home-owning bachelors between the ages of 30-45 who are Cornwall based & would like a 28 year old average looking woman who would marry just about anyone to be able to live in Cornwall!!? (worth a shot...)

 

[rynner2]

Erm........slightly off thread, but, I don't suppose either of you (Rynner or SJ) happen to know of any eligible home-owning bachelors between the ages of 30-45 who are Cornwall based & would like a 28 year old average looking woman who would marry just about anyone to be able to live in Cornwall!!? (worth a shot...)

I qualify as "just about anyone", but sadly I'm outside the age bracket!

There was once a well dedicated to St Meriasek (or Meriadoc) in Camborne, but it dried up when the mine pumps lowered the water table. This is one of those reputed to help with mental problems. I don't think it even exists any more, but it is commemorated on a plaque in Tehidy Road: the plaque also remembers Trevithick's first working road engine.

 

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by Charlotte
[BErm........slightly off thread, but, I don't suppose either of you (Rynner or SJ) happen to know of any eligible home-owning bachelors between the ages of 30-45 who are Cornwall based & would like a 28 year old average looking woman who would marry just about anyone to be able to live in Cornwall!!? (worth a shot...)

err ill bear it in mind while i look around!...why not come down on ur own! sorry im taken and outside the age evelope there...

 

[rynner2]

Saw something about the Isle of Sheppey on TV, so looked on the web. Found The Abbess' Well. Good clear website.

Also Three Headed Godess found in a Sheppey well.

There are several wells there, some now covered or decrepit.

 

[oll_lewis]

st marys well & st winifreds well

for anyof you facying a bit of a tour may I recomend st marys well near cardiff best to come in the winter as it drys up in the summer, pm me if you want info on how to get to it, it's near to cosmeston lakes country park and st marys well bay so might make a nice day trip for cardiffians.

The best example of a holy well south of scotland however is st Winifreds well in Holywell north wales. where I am revisiting next week for my hols. It is to my knolage the only well in the country whose origanal srine buildings survived Henry the 8th's reformation distruction of relics and sites (they hold a service of dedication for st winifreds finger every sunday as well).
The story of st winifred go's like this: evil prince trys to rape her, she's having none of it so evil prince chops her head off with his blade there and then and he runs off. st beuno runns to the place where it happened and reataches his neices head in front of a crowd of villagers who had gathered at the site out of morbid curiosity, she comes back to life and a spring springs up where her head had been, winifred becomes a nun and patron saint of wales untill supercesded by david. evil prince dies in some unimaginably horrible way (hoorah!).
Thats the story so make of it what you will.
Many miricale cures have been atributed to the well giving it the nickname "the lourdes of britain" and visions of st winifred have been seen there so if you ever get the chance to visit (and I can strongly recomed it) ask the nun in the gift shop or the nuns in the retreat house just up the hill about it, they have tons of storys about the well and are happy to tell them

 

[marion]

Chalice well Glastonbury

The Chalice Well and gardens at Glastonbury are definitely worth visiting - the gardens are incredibly peaceful and a great place to calm down and think . The actual spring is also known as the blood spring or the red spring because it has a heavy load of iron salts - the water tastes like blood! The well , I believe , still has its original ( roman ? ) stone wellhouse which has been completely buried so the well is accessed through what was the roof but appears to be at ground level . It has a lovely heavy wood lid bound with iron in a design by Frederick Bligh Bond of the vesica pisces ( overlapping circles within a larger circle bisected by a symbolic spear ) . I don't know about physical healing but it is a wonderful place to find peace .
There is a similar spring on the moors nearby , again volcanic in origin but this time it is yellow and sulphurous ( and stinky ) and therefore probably genuinely good for skin conditions . It has a holy sort of feel to it , with a carved surround , but I will have to research further .

 

[JurekB]

There's another well in North Wales on the Llyn peninsula. It's known as St Gybi's well (Ffynnon Gybi). There are some ruins there and quite a bit of information about the site. Basically you need to spend a couple of nights sleeping in the adjacent house (no roof on it now so take a tent) and take various treatments of well water and sea water.

It's signposted from the A499 Caernarvon to Pwffheli road.

Map

 

[many_angled_one]

As for pagan customs turning into local practices and customs. Well a good example would be the wishing well. There is ample archaeological evidence that ancient Celtic peoples used to throw valuable items into lakes and pools and swamps waters, not jus on singular occasions but over years and years the items have built up.... the only reason they would do so is to make an offering to their god(s) to bring themselves good luck and health etc. This nowadays has transferred into throwing coins, objects of value, into pools of water, wishing wells.
I think it is a fairly obvious correlation.

 

[Jerry_B]

As for pagan customs turning into local practices and customs. Well a good example would be the wishing well. There is ample archaeological evidence that ancient Celtic peoples used to throw valuable items into lakes and pools and swamps waters, not jus on singular occasions but over years and years the items have built up.... the only reason they would do so is to make an offering to their god(s) to bring themselves good luck and health etc. This nowadays has transferred into throwing coins, objects of value, into pools of water, wishing wells.
I think it is a fairly obvious correlation.

The Romans did this too to a certain extent. At Bath, for example. It's not actually known why items were thrown into water/marshes/bogs/etc. by the Celts, etc..

 

[many_angled_one]

The Romans did this too to a certain extent. At Bath, for example. It's not actually known why items were thrown into water/marshes/bogs/etc. by the Celts, etc..

Bare in mind that Rome probably had some Celtic influences as well..... Rome did get sacked by the Celts before the advent of it's empire after all. Perhaps this practice rubbed off on them as a way to venerate the spirits, gods etc.

I honestly cant think of another reason why else the Celts would throw such valuable items into lakes, bogs etc..can you?

 

[MrRING]

It's interesting all the talk of well and Celtic culture... was Grendle and his mother (from Beowulf) living deep in a well?

Maybe they thought of bodies of water as being alive (since they probably came across bad wells from time to time of brakish water), so maybe Grendle was attacking due to a lack of tribute from the newly christian Beowulf?

Well, it made sense to me, at least...

 

[Anonymous]

The Romans did this too to a certain extent. At Bath, for example. It's not actually known why items were thrown into water/marshes/bogs/etc. by the Celts, etc..

Bogs are a little different..it may be connected with the peaty acidic water, which preserved corpses, and was associated with ritual sacrifice.

Springs and rivers, as you say, often had items thrown in. Springs and wells have a truly vast amount of suviving local folklore attached to them, the connections usually being with fertility. The material on this matter leaves little doubt of goddess/fertilty connections with water..from all over the British Isles.

Hagrid.

 

[Jerry_B]

Well, it may orginally all point to some sort of Aryan religious root to do with water. In each, there is some connection between the world of the gods and bodies of water. I assume these bodies to be inland, bearing in mind that similar sacrifices to the seas are harder to find. WRT bog bodies - those who interred bodies in the bogs probably didn't know that those bodies would sometimes be preserved. As with other 'votive' objects, it may have been sacriligious to disturb an internment site just to check.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, it may orginally all point to some sort of Aryan religious root to do with water. In each, there is some connection between the world of the gods and bodies of water.

I'm not sure about what is meant by 'Aryan' in this context? Is that 'Indo-European?'

The ritual significance of water extends way beyond the British Isles, or Europe, the Indus Valley, or even the Indian Sub-Continent. Bodies of water have had beliefs and rituals associated with them, all over the world. There are Mermaid myths from Japan and sacred pools and lakes in the Americas.

Water is both the very stuff of life and something that in large bodies seems almost living, treacherous and powerful. It takes special kinds of skill to deal with, use, navigate and even, sometimes, to find it.

 

[Anonymous]

THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE
by Brendan McMahon

In Celtic tradition spirits have been associated with springs and wells from the earliest times. In ancient Gaul the tutelary spirit was occasionally a god, such as Grannos or Borvo: more often the custodian of the healing spring was a fertility goddess, always beautiful, sometimes dangerous, and these female deities have metamorphosed over time into the faeries of popular tradition.

Sanctuaries were often erected at the holy site, as they were also in later, Christian centuries, and at them festivals were held. Because of their symbolic associations with fertility they played a part in the great religious feasts of the Celtic year, particularly Midsummer's Day, when the wells were visited and worshippers left votive offerings. This surely is the origin of the more recent, indeed, still current custom of dropping pins in the well or tying scraps of rag to a nearby bush. Water spirits in Gaul were known as 'Niskas' or 'Peisgi', possibly ancestors of Cornwall's degenerate modern 'piskie', though the word may derive from Old Celtic 'peiskos' or Latin 'piscos', both meaning fish.

Brendan McMahon's Full Fish Story At: http://www.enya.org/stories/story06.htm

Kind regards,

Garry W. Denke
Geologist/Geophysicist

 

[zygmunt_rocks_on]

'lost' Welsh holy well

Maybe 5 years ago, there was a news story that an apparently lost Holy well in a remote part of a remote Welsh forest had been rediscovered. I think it was some archaeologists flying over in a helicopter who spotted it while looking for something else. When they went investigate it... no mean feat as I recall, it was miles from road through dense forest, they found the well and by it an old coffee mug with fresh flowers in it.

Anyone remember this? I can't find anything on't tinternet because my search parameters are a bit too general, I think.

 

[Hot_Cross_Nun]

Yes, I remember it and I've found one reference here, in the Grauniad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,252903,00.html

Quote:
Ms Earwood only found the well by spotting a clearing in the plantation in an aerial photograph. It took her hours to reach it by scrambling down into a steep valley, following the bank of a stream until a place where it is shallow enough to ford, up the opposite slope of the mountain, and through dense rows of Sitka spruce.
But somebody had been there before her: beside the well there was a brown Denby mug without a handle, holding a posy of flowers.

 

[zygmunt_rocks_on]

BRILLIANT! That's it... many thanks!