History

HOLY WELLS

Cindy Chant and John Drabik

When our ancestors changed their habits from hunter-gatherers to farming and settling in small communities, wells, springs and rivers took on huge importance. Without a continuous supply of water, life would be very difficult, so great reverence was placed upon this important sustainer of life. Special places where fresh water gently emerged from Mother Earth were considered sacred and given names. They were venerated and worshipped and were often used for sacrifice and for healing rituals.

In Roman times, wells and springs were dedicated to their gods and goddesses. Coins, and other votive objects, were sacrificed to the sacred waters to supplement prayers and requests – a custom which still exists today. Several Roman coins and offerings were found during excavations at the base of a well in Winterbourne Kingston. But why stop at coins? There is a legend that a golden table lies at the bottom of a well near the Iron Age hill fort known as Dungeon Hill near Buckland Newton and any recovery attempt will cause earth tremors in the vicinity. Another golden table is reputed to be submerged in a well, in the nearby hunting grounds of King John, at Ryme Intrinseca, although it is not clear why you should put a table into a well.

With the coming of Christianity, wells were often named after Saints, retaining and often increasing their curative properties. Dorset is rich with holy and healing wells and springs. Not far from St.Augustine’s Well (ref. August edition), near to the little church of St. Mary in Hermitage, there is a small bubbling spring called ‘Lady’s Well’. It is on the edge of some woodland on a hill, interestingly named on an old map as ‘Remedy Hill’. The well fills a small stone chamber and may have been first used by a long-forgotten hermit, and later in 1315, by a small community of Augustine Friars who lived in the priory they built nearby.

There were many accounts of healing waters giving rise to miraculous cures and they soon became shrines and attracted pilgrims. There are ancient villages nearby with names such as Holwell, with its little chambered well behind the church, Hallwell in Hazelbury Bryan, has a recently discovered ancient well, and Holywell near Evershot, where a number of Bronze Age objects were found. Even our own settlement, Sherborne, was named after its source of water, Scir-Burn which means clear brook or stream.

Further south at Morcombelake, there is a healing spring said to have been used by the 7th century Saxon Martyr, St. Wite (also known as St. Candida). She lived nearby in prayer and contemplation and was known to

warn the villagers when she spotted invading Viking ships from her clifftop vantage point. This clear water source enjoyed a reputation as a cure for sore eyes. Visiting pilgrims would often fill their amphorae and take some holy water home for further medication. Wild violet-blue periwinkle grow there each springtime, and are known locally as ‘St. Candida’s Eyes’.

The famous wishing well at Upwey, emerging beside the magnificent St. Laurence’s church, may have once been a holy well. It is not strictly a well, but a spring where the clear, strong flowing water fills a huge stone trough sitting amidst beautiful ornamental gardens. It is the source of the River Wey and possibly dates back to the Ice Age. Today it is as popular as it once was, and there are adjoining tea rooms for refreshing the visiting pilgrims, as would have been the custom centuries ago. With their back to the well and affirming a wish, the pilgrim would drink some water and throw the rest over their shoulder back into the trough. There is a practise of dressing the well on May Day, a custom which originated and is more popular in northern parts of Britain.

Lyme Regis claims a holy well, known as ‘Leper’s Well’, which once formed part of a secluded leper hospital dedicated to both St. Mary and to the healing powers of the Holy Spirit. In the Middle Ages those who were unfortunate to have contracted leprosy were regarded as unclean, and afflicted as a result of a curse, or as a punishment for sinful behaviour. The well is quite substantial with a stone arch and seating within, reminiscent of an inglenook fireplace.

Not all wells are dedicated to healing. There is one at Powerstock where the water occasionally turns red. It is said that a jealous husband threw his wife into it for being unfaithful to him, and the red colour is caused by the red flannel petticoat she regularly wore, and some say, it is her blood. This well also has associations with the Devil, but it is unclear exactly how this story goes. However, the Devil has been known to push people into wells, and also into watery pools. He has been known to do this at the ‘Blue Pool’ at Furzebrook, near Corfe Castle. So the next time you turn your water tap on, think about these stories and the importance our ancestors placed upon something we now take for granted.

Cindy and John are offering customised tours of Dorset’s Sacred Sites. Contact them on dorsetchikung@hotmail.co.uk for more information.

Specialist Matthew Denney will be in the Sherborne area on Thursday 28th October to value your objects & antiques

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Long Street, looking west towards the Conduit and Abbey circa. 1900

LOST DORSET NO. 16 SHERBORNE

David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

Childs Cycle Works was a coffee tavern when Edwin Childs bought it in 1892. Note the sign for Humber; Thomas Humber initially made ‘penny-farthing’ bicycles in a back room in his Nottingham house. He gradually modified his designs and in 1896 attached a small 3hp engine to a bicycle frame in his Beeston works, making Humber one of Britain’s first motorbike manufacturers. Edwin Child later opened a garage in Long Street, selling Colonel Walter Baxter – the owner of the Dorsetshire Brewery, also in Long Street – Sherborne’s first motorcar. The garage finally closed in the 1990s and has since been replaced by the Cloisters housing development. JH Short was a family grocer. The buildings on the left include the Castle Hotel, then a base for local carriers, and the National Provincial Bank, which had taken over the building when it amalgamated with the Sherborne and Dorsetshire Bank.

Lost Dorset: The Towns 1880-1920, the companion volume to Lost Dorset: The Villages and Countryside, is being published in October as a 220-page large format hardback, price £20, and will be available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers dovecotepress.com

OBJECT OF THE MONTH THE CRESTED CHINA

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

Asouvenir (from the French, ‘to come to mind’) is a physical object that encourages and protects memory. It makes an experience tangible, both aiding our recollection of it while proving it to others. Part of our holiday ritual, it represents our need to hold on to the event for that little bit longer. It can act as a conversation piece, marking one out as interestingly different from those who have not experienced the same journey, and creates recognition that there has been a period, however short, spent outside normal existence. There is more emotion, therefore, invested in these objects than in purely material possessions.

Small, hollow off-white ornaments, decorated with civic arms and other crests, were extremely popular souvenirs with many people who travelled in the years immediately before the First World War, particularly to seaside resorts. Typically, they were bought on holidays or day-trips to the places indicated on the crest and carefully carried home. Even during the war years, seaside holidays continued to be possible, despite defensive works being carried out in some coastal towns. This ‘crested china’, also known as heraldic souvenir ware, was particularly consumed by the upper working and lower middle classes. It was mostly made in the potteries around Stoke-on-Trent by companies such as Carlton, Grafton, Savoy and Willow Art as well as the high-quality producers WH Goss. The peacetime range included figurines, everyday objects and local museum antiquities or functional items such as ring-trees or pin-trays. With the onset of war, new designs were registered such as shells, grenades, aeroplanes and tanks.

Sherborne Museum has many splendid examples of crested china specific to the town, including this model based on ‘a Roman vase excavated in the area’, hence its slightly squashed appearance. Nine centimetres high, it bears transfer printed designs of the Arms of Edward VI (re-founder of Sherborne School) and the Arms of Sherborne Abbey. In between these crests is printed: A SOUVENIR OF THE SHERBORNE PAGEANT JUNE 1905. On the other side is a depiction of St. Aldhelm, the town’s first bishop, with his attribute of a harp. There are traces of gilding on the rim and a moulded pattern of interlocking rings around the shoulder. British-made, it originates from the Foley China Works in Fenton, Staffordshire.

Undoubtedly, its production was aimed at the several thousands of people, both local and visitors, who flocked to see the Sherborne Pageant, which was the first historical folk-play of its kind, and which started a trend for these types of performances across the country. It celebrated the founding of the bishopric by Aldhelm and the subsequent story of the town up to the time of Sir Walter Raleigh. Beyond this specific event, the vase carries overtones of academia, spirituality and antiquity; very much the Sherborne ‘brand’.

The vase is part of a subset of several related items within this particular category of ceramics in our collection, which was donated to the museum by an alumnus of Sherborne School who became a director of an internationally acclaimed auction house. Disregarded for years, nowadays undamaged pieces are rated very highly by collectors, particularly those belonging to limited production runs.

sherbornemuseum.co.uk

Sherborne Museum aims to open shortly, upon completion of essential building repairs.