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Nah. Was speaking in jest, as my eyesight has always been good. This particular miraculous well has been associated from ancient times with curing eye problems though so, after enjoying the tranquil atmosphere of the place, splashing a few drops on my eyes seems the right thing to do. If I make it to my frail old dotage without the need for glasses, rest assured I will post something here!
 
Opposite our house was a church was was built over the site of an Anglo Saxon church and King Athelstan's 'palace' (actually more like a hunting lodge) was thought to be in the field behind the church. Interestingly locals called it the 'White Lady' field and in the field was a water source, now thought to be a pre-christian well. It was like a dew pond and cattle were sometimes in the field. The pond was called 'The White Lady' pond and every child in the village knew the story if you ran three times round the church, a white lady (presumably some kind of 'white goddess') would appear...

As I posted elsewhere here, we once visited when we lived 150 miles away, and my kids had never been there except briefly to visit their grandma's grave - and my then 3 year old stood by the wall looking down on the field and said "Is tha where the lady with the long hair lives?" Needless to say, we nearly shat ourselves.

A few years later I returned home to live in the village and one day overheard one of the same son's primary aged friends tell him, word for word, the same white lady story we'd all grown up with in the 1960s... So she lives on as an urban (rural?) legend.

Took me years to figure out the stagnant dew pond was actually a holy well. Hence the associated guardian spirit.
 
As this is described as a Healing Well, I guess it deserves a mention here:
Robert Burns' bathing spot 'transformed' ahead of death anniversary

A spot where Robert Burns bathed and drank the waters shortly before he died has been "transformed" ahead of the anniversary of his death.
A commemorative service will take place at the renovated Brow Well near Ruthwell on 20 July.

In the 1700s the site was renowned for its healing qualities with residents of Dumfries regularly "taking the waters".
Burns himself visited in 1796 but it failed to improve his condition and he died in July that year.
The Dumfries and Galloway site remains a popular spot for fans of the poet's work to visit.

Last year the Solway Firth Partnership set up a steering group to lead the initiative to improve the site and preserve the story of this piece of Burns' history.
It has resulted in a new surround for the well engraved with poetry, a new path and interpretation panel.
The project was funded by Solway Heritage, The Landfill Communities Fund, through Solway Heritage and Dumfries and Galloway Council, along with contributions from many Burns Clubs and volunteers.

Colin Mitchell, who chairs Solway Heritage, said: "The Brow Well is an important site locally and nationally.
"It sits on the Solway Coast Heritage Trail and features on the Burns Heritage Trail.
"Solway Heritage is delighted to have been able to fund this improvement project which clearly embraces the built, cultural and natural heritage within one location."

As part of the improvement works, the path from the Brow Well to Ruthwell has also been upgraded for walkers by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Solway Firth Partnership Manager Clair McFarlan said: "We are really grateful to all the funders and everyone else who has contributed to the improvements at the Brow Well.
"And we hope that local residents and visitors alike will enjoy this special historic site for many years to come.
"Just don't drink the water." :eek:

Southern Scottish Counties Burns Association President Mike Duguid said the annual service at the Brow Well was held in "very high esteem" by admirers of the poet.
"It offers them the opportunity to reflect on the fact that he died so young and yet left behind such a magnificent legacy of poems and songs which have helped define Scotland's place in the world," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-36746394

There are mentions upthread of Red Wells, and the photos here show the Brow Well water to be red.
"Brow Well situated 3 km west of the village of Ruthwell is stained reddish by the high levels of iron salts in the water. This red well is now most noted as the place where Robert Burns hoped to cure his final illness by drinking the iron-rich water."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthwell
 
Re: not exactly a lost well but...



I visited this well yesterday, en route to somewhere else. It was well worth the 80p I was charged! :D

St Winifride's Well website

The spring itself is quite beautiful to see, bubbling up from a pebbly riverbed under a stone chapel-type building. There's a museum with a couple of alleged martyr skeletons on display and you can bathe in the holy pool to ease your condition, should you wish. Looked cold to me though.

My colleagues, ladies like me of a certain age, immediately tried to splash the holy water onto themselves. This is quite hard to do as it's all fenced off and you'd have to lie flat on the stone surround to reach it. Which they all did, including one with quite severe knee problems. As you can probably guess, I didn't bother. :lol:

It all felt much more pagan than Christian to me and I was content to watch the lovely moving water.

Earlier this year we watched a TV series about British holy water sites and the presenter bathed in this very one. He said it was FREEZING just before he submerged himself, to get the full benefit, y'know. Wish I could remember the name of the series so I could look on youtube.

Anyway, just thought I'd better report my visit!

Hooo - edit - here's the TV programme about it, with a bone-chillingly cold-looking clip. :shock:

I later learned that the spring dried up at some point because of mining activity or something and another was cleverly diverted to the same spot. So it's the site that's holy, not the water.

Interestingly, the site was preserved from destruction during the Dissolution because Henry VIII's mother had been fond of it.
 
I have stacks of material, mostly gleaned online, relating to the Cumbrian tradition of well-walking. These reached their height of popularity in the 19th Century and could get a little boisterous. Springs are the centre of the folklore in the Penrith area: Saint Cuthbert's Well at Edenhall being the site where the famous Luck was seized from the wee folk, while Saint Ninian's Well by the Eamont forms the backdrop to the legends of Sir Ewain or Owain Cesario, the Giant.

This page gives a good summary of the tradition.

The shaking-bottles were primed with pieces of Licorice or "Spanish." The tradition appears to have been to fill or refill them at the spring. The fashion for this flavoured water was not restricted to Cumbria: there is a reference to such a bottle, kept by Pip under his bed in Great Expectations. It is this he redeploys to take brandy to Magwich.

Sadly, the Giant's Cave seems to have collapsed back in the 1980s? The site is on private land and awkward to access.

The Eamont was badly affected by the floods of last winter so it seems unlikely that much remains to be visited.

Here is someone who came close in January this year. :)
 
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Looking at the colour of the water in the well, it's probably the cause of Robert Burns' death:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-36746394
A spot where Robert Burns bathed and drank the waters shortly before he died has been "transformed" ahead of the anniversary of his death.
A commemorative service will take place at the renovated Brow Well near Ruthwell on 20 July.
In the 1700s the site was renowned for its healing qualities with residents of Dumfries regularly "taking the waters".
Burns himself visited in 1796 but it failed to improve his condition and he died in July that year.
 
The shaking-bottles were primed with pieces of Licorice or "Spanish." The tradition appears to have been to fill or refill them at the spring. The fashion for this flavoured water was not restricted to Cumbria: there is a reference to such a bottle, kept by Pip under his bed in Great Expectations.

Also, doesn't the eponymous hero of the Just William stories habitually make up such a special mixture? He had an exotic name for it which I can't remember.
 
No, it was 'my secret mixture' or summit. Definitely the same stuff though.
 
Yes, it was just called liquorice water in the William books. It was probably the poor man's (non-fizzy) equivalent of root beer.
 
There seem to have been two versions at least of the licorice-water. Pip was keeping his to infuse; I think we can assume it might also have fermented. I don't know if William's version was associated with dafter pranks than usual.

The Penrith tradition of filling the bottles at the spring would not have given time for fermentation. I tend to assume that the young people may have started the day with some well-infused liquor and turned to the spring for a hangover-cure. The affairs were notoriously rowdy and stern folk called on them to be banned. :revelry:
 
Alexander Makovics, lands surveyor, GIS officer for Keep Wales Tidy. It's a talking head plus his slides. Nice pics of the wells, working with professionals and volunteers...

Interesting to me is the effect on working with the wells on the volunteers themselves.

 
Ireland's Holy Wells County-by-County

Browse, browse by county or submit a record for the benefit of future researchers:

https://ihwcbc.omeka.net/

_117384539_da204a11-0edd-4137-af55-ad174b0cb69c.png


The NI holy wells in known use

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56216763

maximus otter
 
Here's a clickbaitily-entitled Daily Post article on the wells of Anglesey. It's actually about how the island's demand for water and sewage disposal outstripped the supply from the 1850s onwards after the building of the railway.

(There's also mention of the excellent and safe to browse Wellhopper blog)

Anglesey's strange 'witch' building that hides a 'best in Wales' secret

The well house, in its current guise, came into being in the mid 19th century following the construction of the Britannia Bridge, which brought the railway to Holyhead.

As the port grew, and its population expanded, so did the demand for water.

The conditions were described in a recent post on the West of Anglesey Facebook page:

“In the 1850s water shortages were common and poor sanitation was at critical levels..

“Generally, people obtained their water from springs which was carried home by horse and cart.

“Even worse, when there was a drought, they had to queue for water and wait their turn."

(Edited to add speech marks to the quotation and to tell @Frideswide that I plonked the post here because I couldn't find another Weird Well-type thread. :))
 
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A cherished Scottish holy well was 'desecrated' by a visitor who tidied it up by removing pilgrims' offerings.
Locals are outraged.

This is a really good Guardian article about it, with a map and pictures, and some explanation of the 'clootie well' tradition.

‘It’s upset a lot of people’: outrage after tidy-up of Scottish sacred well

The clootie well near Munlochy, a village on the Black Isle peninsula across the Beauly Firth from Inverness, is a place of traditional pilgrimage and modern curiosity.

It is also now a cause of community consternation, after a well-meaning stranger cleared away many of the offerings.

Here's how it works -
Clootie wells, which are also found in Cornwall and Ireland, date far back into pre-Christian times and the practice of leaving votives and offerings for spirits in wells and springs.

The healing well at Munlochy has been linked to Saint Boniface, who worked as a missionary in Scotland around AD620, and is probably an example of early Christianity absorbing more ancient Celtic traditions.

Pilgrims performed a ceremony that involved circling the well three times before splashing some of its water on the ground and saying a prayer.

They would then tie a piece of cloth that had been in contact with the ill person to a nearby tree and, as the rag rotted away, so that person would be healed.
 
"Les Sept Fontaines", a holy well in the French Alps.

Les Sept Fontaines (The Seven Fountains / Springs), located in the valley of Montmin, near Annecy, France, are holy springs surging from the Tournette massif.

The site consists of a series of seven small pools built into a grassy slope, at the edge of the small hamlet of Plan Montmin. A 17th century chapel overlooks the pools.

The waters from the "fountains" had a reputation for healing a wide range of illnesses. Although the history of the site is not very well documented before the 16th century, the central shrine of the seven pools is devoted to the Virgin Mary. Locals used to gather for picnics and religious services with the local priest on 15th of August, a marial date.

I'll post a picture of the shrine later on (I can't upload it right now). Apart from a handful of ex voto and thank messages, the shrine sports some interesting engraved symbols, mostly Christian. Along with the regular cross, there is a Jerusalem cross, and a star with a central pentagon. Some other marginal symbols are more difficult to interpret. I have no idea of the meaning of the star+pentagon symbol. If anybody knows what it stands for, please share your thoughts. It looks like a variation on the pentagram ..

According to local antiquarians, the holy spring could date back to Antiquity. Although no archeological evidence supports this theory, they point out the fact that the waters from the spring go down the valley to a village called Vesonne, whose name is reminiscent of the Celtic water goddess Vesunna.

Here is the picture of the central pool.

IMG_20221224_134245-3.jpg
 
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I have visited many holly wells in the uk on Motorbike rallies, this site lists many of them,
At one time I had a collection of small bottles of water from them, there's one near the A6
at Carnforth that is supposed to cure eye problems but looking at the couloir of it, no thanks
it does not feature in many lists and is a pig to find, looks a bit oily and rich in iron.

https://www.hoap.co.uk/holy_wells_in_britain.pdf
 
Oh, thats grand; I saw many in Cornwall, but there are some all over if you look around.
 
An interesting spring in Normandy : "La Fontaine Sainte Catherine".

La fontaine Sainte Catherine is a small "wishing well" set on the banks of the Fouillebroc river, in Lyons-la-Forêt, a mile or so from the Mortemer Abbey (recently self-proclaimed "most-haunted castle" in France for touristic reasons). A small chapel has been built over the spring, and its access is secured by a solid yet elegant grid.

The local tradition has it that girls willing to find a good husband used to make offerings at the spring in order to ask for Catherine's intercession. The waters are not supposed to have any healing properties. So, it's really a kind of "heavenly matchmaking" site. I wonder how a spring got attention as a matchmaking facility in the first place, especially so close to a monastery (not exactly the kind of place you would go to find a mate). How Catherine became associated with the spring ? Did the spring inherit its supposed matchmaking properties from an ancient god / goddess / nymph ? I have no idea ...

As I was having a walk in the nearby woods, about ten years ago, I made a detour to visit this charming little chapel, and was struck to see that some people still left messages and small offerings in order to meet their soulmate. Even though I am a male, e.g. not the usual "public" of Saint Catherine's blessings, I naughtily asked the saint to find me a good wife. Ten years later, I am still single ... It was a good try, though !

I suppose the relative proximity to a large town such as Rouen contributes to the site's popularity.

Some pictures of the spring are published on this French website : https://www.fontainesdefrance.info/fontaines/la-fontaine-sainte-catherine/
 
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The local tradition has it that girls willing to find a good husband

I know the following as a non-serious prayer

Sweet St Katherine send me a husband, a good one I pray
But any a one better than never a one,
Sweet St Katherine lend me thine aid
Grant that I may never die an old maid
 
Don't drink the water.

Ugandan Catholic pilgrims visiting the popular Namugongo Martyrs Shrine in central region have been cautioned against drinking water from the so-called holy well.

Church authorities say the water can be used for other scripture purposes such as making the sign of the cross, but it is not fit for consumption.

Uganda Episcopal Conference secretary general, John Kauta, on Thursday said although faithful who collect the water claim spiritual healing, health experts have advised church leaders that the water is unclean and unsafe.

“The water in Namugongo is distilled, but it is not safe to drink. This is also because it runs from many places. People can take it and use it for signs, but don’t drink it,” Mr Kauta told state-run New Vision website.

Mr Kauta said the church will in future set up more taps at the well for easier access due to the high demand for the water. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world...140baaf7ce9556ed074b51&pinned_post_type=share
 

California closes Miracle Hot Spring tourist spot - beloved by hippies for its 'healing minerals' after body is found floating in water: Victim is second person to have died there in two years


A California hot spring in Sequoia National Forest beloved by those who use it for what they claim are 'healing minerals' is being forced to closed after a body was found floating in water.

81901245-13143235-A_California_hot_spring_in_Sequoia_National_Forest_beloved_by_th-a-15_1709258408579.jpg


The Forest Service confirmed that a body was discovered at Miracle Hot Springs in one of the tubs on February 17.

It was the second time in the past 18 months that deaths have been reported in the same area after a body was found on October 17, 2022.

The victims have not been identified but it has the Forest Service taking extra precaution, despite the protestations of those who run the springs, who have promised a protest of 'civil disobedience.'

'With a second death that can be attributed in part to the hot springs, the area will remain closed until a sustainable long-term solution is reached,' said District Ranger Al Watson.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13143235/California-Miracle-hot-spring-deaths-closed.html

maximus otter
 
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