Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

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Aylsham, Norfolk: Once upon a time Aylsham was famed for its chalybeate spring (water containing iron salts) and the resultant spa founded around it. By the 1820s and 30s it had all but gone out of use, and now only a trickle of water remains to show where it had once been resorted to for the relief of asthma and other chronic ailments, at Spa Farm south of the town (TG192255).

Badley, Suffolk:  The Lady Well or 'Our Lady Well' (TM061552) is on private land in fields about ½ a mile south of the church, with a vague tradition that pilgrims journeyed there for its medicinal properties. Wellfield Covert is near by, and a tiny brook runs from it to join the river Gipping on the outskirts of Needham Market.

Brettenham, Norfolk: In Shadwell Park can be found St. Chad's Well (TL933830). According to an unpublished dissertation of 1993 by D. Manning, this is a medieval holy well, now covered by a 19th century dome-shaped wellhouse.

Bungay, Suffolk: In 1728, an apothecary named John King built here (TM324914) a 'cold bath house' in order to take advantage of the medicinal properties of an iron spring welling out of the Bath Hills. This became quite famous for sometime, but the bath house had become unused by 1867, and was later pulled down.

Source: David R. Butcher: 'Waveney Valley' (East Anglian Magazine Ltd, 1975), p.57.

Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: Here were three holy wells that I know of, but their exact positions are uncertain. St. Mary's Well stood outside the town's Eastgate; Holywell or Hockwell was near the Westgate, and Sacrin's Well was within the abbey precincts, near the Cellarer's House.

Source: Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Vol.13, p.207.

Clare, Suffolk: According to the 15th century Cartulary of Clare Priory, "a spring in what was then a field in front of the house gave a supply of chalybeate water which was reckoned to have curative powers".

Source: http://www.clare-uk.com/Hatton_Book/Clare_Book_III.pdf

Deopham, Norfolk: There was once a 'petrifying spring' at Deopham near Wymondham, into which anything that was dropped turned into solid stone. To be found at the foot of a huge linden tree, it "petrifies sticks, leaves, etc. which accidentally fall into it, if they lie any time".

Source: Francis Blomefield: 'An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk' (1805) Vol.2.

Dunwich, Suffolk: A few yards across the road from the 1830 St. James' church (on the site of the old Leper Hospital of St. James) is a steep grassy bank, the southern edge of Leet Hill, where the townsfolk would gather to thrash out their policies and differences. At the base of the bank is an earthy hole with a short shallow channel running from it. This was St. James' Well (TM474706), a freshwater spring that supplied the lazar house.

East Dereham, Norfolk: A house of the 17th or 18th century in Old Becclesgate (at TF986133) is supposed locally to have once been a monastery. The arched cellars are said to contain a holy well - but this may have been confused with a well once in the garden, described as "the other" St. Withburga's Well.

Source: www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MNF12398

Fakenham, Norfolk: I have a note that there were once five springs near the town, "one of them strongly chalybeate".

Fersfield, Norfolk: From St. Andrew's church "processions were usually made to a well or spring, about 60 yards from the north gate of the churchyard, at the foot of a hill, which is still called Tann's Well, a corruption of St. Anne's Well".

Source: John Chambers: 'A General History of the County of Norfolk' (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1829), Vol.1, p.125.

Flitcham-with-Appleton, Norfolk: About fifty yards south of the old church was "a curious spring called Holy Well". Another source called it the 'Pilgrim's Well', and said it was used by pilgrims on their way to the shrine at Walsingham.

Sources:

Francis Blomefield: 'An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk' (1808) Vol.8.

W.A. Dutt: 'The Norfolk & Suffolk Coast' (T. Fisher Unwin, 1909), p.329.

Glemsford, Suffolk: Somewhere near Glemsford Bridge "There is also a spring....strong and unfailing sweet water and cold as well known in this locality as 'Holy Water' and frequently the thirsty labourer will go halfway across the field for draughts of this cold sweet water from this spring."

Source: The 'Bury & Norwich Post', 8/1/1851.

Great Barton, Suffolk: In the grounds of St. John's Cottage beside the A143 in this village is found St. John's Well (TL889669). Although everything about it now seems modern, including the summerhouse built around it, this well is supposedly marked on maps as far back as the 17th century. Little is known about it, except that it has never dried up in the worst drought, even though the water is only about 1.2m (4 feet) deep.

Source: www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18412

Gressenhall, Norfolk: St. Agnes' Well is actually a spring, at TF948158, west of the church and near the boundary with Longham. It now looks like a banked pond, but once had a brickwork well head, and was said to have been a 'holy' well for medieval travellers on the way to the shrine at Walsingham.

Source: www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid='mnf12467'

Halesworth, Suffolk: Somewhere here was once another mineral spring good for the eyes.

Hinderclay, Suffolk: Off Tuffen Lane, a little north-west of the village and close to Thelnetham church, is a spring known as St. Mary's Well, a healing spring said to be especially good for weak eyes (TM021781.)

Source:

Kelly's' Directory of Suffolk' (1929).

Hunstanton, Norfolk: In addition to the holy wells known in the legend of St. Edmund, the Old Hunstanton area is said to have once been home to a chalybeate spirng. 

Ipswich, Suffolk: Holywells Park on the east bank of the river Orwell as it flows through the centre of Ipswich was once supposedly named after the many springs that emerged there, and were frequented by pilgrims. However, the name actually derives from 'hollow well', rather than any sacred wells. Despite this, a rumour exists that an hereditary 'guardian' existed at the wells until the late 19th century. Some apparently even believed it to have been a Druid.

But across the river, close to the Stoke area of Ipswich, there certainly was a 'holy well', recorded as 'Haligwille' in a boundary charter of 970. This spring was on a hillside at the former Fir Tree Farm (approx. TM136427), and may have been close to where the renowned hoard of golden Iron Age torcs were discovered in 1968.

Sources:

Allan Jobson: 'Portrait of Suffolk' (Robert Hale, 1973), p.60.

Robert Malster: 'Ipswich, An A to Z of Local History' (Wharncliffe Books, 2005), pp.74-5.

Information gratefully received from John Wragg.

King's Lynn, Norfolk: Spring Wood (TF649222) can be found in the middle of a housing estate in the Lynn suburb of South Wootton, in the former hamlet of Reffley. Here are the scant remains of Reffley Temple, built in 1789 by the Reffley Brethren as a rendezvous for social gatherings, although the Brethren themselves are said to have started in Cromwell's time as a 'secret society' of Royalist sympathizers. A chalybeate spring arose here, and in 1756 an obelisk was erected in the middle of the spring's basin, dedicated to 'Bacchus and Venus, the gods of this place'. In the 1980s the temple was vandalized and pulled down, the obelisk removed for safekeeping, and the spring dried out. On one side of the obelisk was a curse, stating "Whosoever shall remove this or bid its removal, let him die the last of his race". 

Source: http://homepages.tesco.net/~Paul.Okill/index.htm

Long Melford, Suffolk: Here was once another 'petrifying spring' at Cranmore Green, which turned objects into stone.

Source: John Britton & others: 'The Beauties of England & Wales' (Verner & Hood, 1813), p.169.

Lowestoft, Suffolk: Basket Wells (TM545940) were two springs given to the town by two maiden sisters, Elizabeth and Katherine, who are said to have lived in the Old Maids' Chamber, a room above the south porch of St. Margaret's church. They had the wells dug at their own expense for the use of the townsfolk, on a small triangular plot of land known as the Bleach, a little to the east beyond the old railway line. This was a drying-ground, where old ladies could wash and hang out their linen on poles stretched across the green. The wells were filled in in 1932, but allotments on the site are still quite damp and muddy. The name of the wells is said to be from the sisters' names - Bess and Kate.

At the bottom of a road called the Ravine in north Lowestoft is an old fountain (TM551946), once fed by a freshwater spring that originated nearly a mile away in an old railway cutting near St. Margaret's church. In Victorian times "the water obtained celebrity as being beneficial for the eyes...the public analyst...reported that the medicinal properties of the spring were due to the rather large proportion of Chloride of Sodium and Sulphate of Magnesia..."

Not far away, behind the one-time cafeteria on the property called Sparrow's Nest, used to stand an old cottage, and attached to this was a conservatory in which arose a spring that was said to be especially good for the eyesight. At one time, this water was bottled and sold (mostly to little old ladies) of a halfpenny a bottle.

Sources:

Edmund Gillingwater: 'An Historical Account of the Ancient Town of Lowestoft' (1790, reprinted by A. E. Murton, 1897).

M. L. Powell: 'Lowestoft Through the Ages' (Flood & Sons Ltd, c.1953), p.60.

Melton, Suffolk: It's long gone now, but there used to be a healing spring in Old Church Road, at the bottom of the Old Rectory garden. It was said to be good for rheumatism, and to give long life to the drinker.

Mildenhall, Norfolk: A holy well or spring used to be seen here in area named after it, Holywell Row. It was in a field beside the Eriswell Road, about 200 yards north of Holywell Farm, and was said to have been used for baptisms.

Source: www.onesuffolk.co.uk/BeckRowPC/Historyoftheparish/

North Lopham, Norfolk: A well said to have been dug over 1000 years ago is behind Fern Cottage on the main road at North Lopham, and is one of the ''Seven Wonders of the Lophams' (another is the Ox-Foot Stone.) The well is about 25 feet deep and said to never run dry, its level remaining constant whatever the weather. The owner (back in the 1970s) said that when there was a drought in the area many years before, it managed to cater for the whole village without diminishing the supply by one drop, and that travellers once used to stop by just to taste the water.

Source: 'South Norfolk News', 27/6/1975.

Norwich, Norfolk: St. Lawrence's Well (TG228089), near that church, probably served Fullers Hole, where cloth was cleansed and thickened. It is in Westwick Street, near Charing Cross, and in 1576 was granted to Robert Gibson "on condition that he should conduct its waters, through a leaden pipe, to the main thoroughfare. This he did, and a pump was erected over it". In the late 19th century the brewer Sir Harold Bullard converted it into a public drinking fountain and incorporated it into the outer wall of his brewery.

Source: E. R. Suffling: 'The Land of the Broads' (Benjamin Perry, 1895), p.85.

Oulton, Norfolk: Here, on land near Spa Lane north of the village, was another chalybeate spring with alleged healing properties.

Shelfanger, Norfolk: At the church here in medieval times there used to be the holy St. Anne's Well (TM107836).

Source: 'Excursions Through the County of Norfolk' (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown), 1818.

Thetford, Norfolk: In about 1746, workmen uncovered, in the meadows between the rivers Little Ouse and Thet, what they believed to be the remains of a holy well or shrine. The chalybeate waters became popular for a while for their healing effects on headaches and stomach problems, but the well soon became neglected. In 1818 a pump room was built over it, then a bath house in about 1833. But still it never gained enough patrons, and the bath was filled in by 1838. Thetford Spring House is now a private residence, standing at about TL871827, and the water is now said to feed a private swimming pool.

Wereham, Norfolk: "...to the west of the church is St. Margaret's Well, at which, in the times of popery, the people diverted themselves on that saint's day with cakes and ale, music and dancing; alms and offerings were brought, and vows made: all this was called Well worship."

The well can be found beside the village pond, and is marked now by a small obelisk, beneath which the water rises and flows into a stone basin.

Source: John Chambers: 'A General History of the County of Norfolk' (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1829), p.125.

Wymondham, Norfolk: St. Thomas Becket's Well (TG106015 area) is near the churchyard, 'a copious spring, once an object of pilgrimage'. The well, now sealed, is in private grounds in Becketswell Road near the abbey, with the spring that once fed it still flowing into a stream nearby.