Kent | Leicestershire
AT Wavertree, near Liverpool, is a well bearing the following inscription:
Qui non dat quod habet, Dæmon infra vide 1414.
Tradition says at one period there was a cross above it, inscribed
Deus dedit, homo bibit;
and that all travellers gave
alms on drinking. If they omitted to do so, a devil who was chained at the
bottom laughed. A monastic building stood near and the occupants received
the contributions.--Choice Notes and Queries (Folk-Lore), 205.
There is a well here which has the reputation of being haunted, a fratricide having been committed there. It was a haunt of pick pockets and other disorderly characters. It is now built over and in a few short years the subterranean passage leading to the well will be forgotten.--Ibid., 206.
There is a well here called St. Helen's Well, after the patron Saint of
the parish church, at which people try their fortunes. It is now a stone
reservoir, in and out of which the water perpetually flows. It was
customary for passersby to drop in a new pin for good luck,
or
to secure the favourable issue of an expressed wish. Also conclusions were
drawn as to the fidelity of their lovers, date of marriage, etc., by the
turning of the pin-point to the north or any other point of the compass.
Very few pins were then in it, but a few years ago, before it was cleared,
[84] the bottom was covered with them. The
tradition is, that, perhaps before the church was built, baptism was given
at this well ; it is near the Roman Catholic Chapel, township of
Ince-Blundell. It is not very far from the church on the road to
Ince-Blundell, a Roman Catholic township in Sefton parish, about twenty
yards south of the road.--Baines, iii. 497. Notes and
Queries, 5 S. X. 158.
In Brindle parish, to which the vulgar neighbouring people of the Red Letter do much resort with pretended devotion on each year upon St. Ellin's Day, where and when, out of a foolish ceremony, they offer, or throw into the well, pins, which there being left may be seen a long time after.--From Parish Register.
At Cartmell is a brackish spring, celebrated as a remedy for stone, gout, and cutaneous complaints. The water issues from a projecting rock of limestone called Humphrey Head, and its medicinal qualities occasion a considerable influx of company to Cartmell, Flookborough, Kents Bank, and Grange, during the summer months. At Pit-farm, in the parish, is an interesting spring, less celebrated, though of the same nature, as the Giggleswick Well in Yorkshire.
A well adjoining to Bottom Hall still retains the name of Sir Ralph Pudsey. He is said to have ordered it to be dug and walled round for a bath; and it is much venerated by the country people to this day, who say that many remarkable cures have been wrought there.
This well is about half a mile from St. Oswald's Church, Winwick, and three miles from Warrington. In common with the one bearing the same name at Oswestry, it is said to mark the spot where St. Oswald fell when defending his kingdom against the attack of the fire-eating old tyrant, Penda, King of the Mercians. It is at Woodhead, near Winwick, situated in a field [85] on the Hermitage Farm, within a few yards of the lane, and presents a very modest appearance for so famous a spot, looking merely like a hole in the hill-side. Passing through a small cottage-garden, a well-trodden path leads to the well. The water is not very bright, but the well is substantially walled inside, and two or three deeply-worn steps lead to the water. On a recent visit a number of beautiful ferns were growing inside from the corners and sides of the slabs which cover in the water. Some of the stone-work thus used is grooved and carved in a manner which shows that at some period the well was protected, and by a handsome and substantial erection; but most of this was taken away many years ago, the existing rustic protection having been fixed up about twenty years ago by the present tenant of Hermitage Farm. Baines, in his History, speaks of Winwick as the true scene of Oswald's death, and urges in favour that Bede describes the well as being formed by the carrying away of earth by the people, thus making a deep hole, which was formed into a well, whilst the well at Oswestry is a clear sparkling spring. Not only was the earth carried away by pious people after his death, but for ages since, and even up to the present day the water has had ascribed to it wondrous healing powers, though to the irreverent mind it is very ordinary water to look at. By our reverential but superstitious forefathers the water was carried great distances and administered as a medicine in case of disease; and Bede relates several miracles which he had been informed were worked in the vicinity, and by earth or water taken from the well. At the present day there are people who use the water as a cure for sore eyes ; and if not used at the present time, certainly within the last twenty years it was used in the surrounding Catholic chapels. The 'Abbot's House' and 'Hermitage,' and other names, and the fact that at one time there was a considerable ecclesiastical establishment in the vicinity, sufficiently indicate the reverence in which our Catholic forefathers held the spot.--See Antiquary, iii. 260-62.