Quantock Wells and Springs by Audrey Mead
April 2008Friends of Quantock have a special interest in St Agnes Well at Cothelstone. They had it restored in 1987 - the European Year of the Environment - and endeavour to make periodic onslaughts on the encroaching vegetation. A beautiful old well house, it lies N E of the Manor, reached by a stile from the road and then up through a wet patch of ground. Reputedly the water is good for sore eyes and sprains and it has also long been associated with unmarried girls seeking husbands. St Agnes is commemorated on 21 January and they visited on the eve of that day whispering their desires, and probably dropping in a pin or small coin, hoping to dream of future lovers. In Ruth Tongue’s ‘Somerset Folklore’ she tells the tale of an older maidservant who longed for a man and children to love. But ‘not liking to worry St Agnes over one so on in years’, she went ‘in the dimmit’ to Seven Wells Combe, though the well there was hard to find. Within a year she was happily wed to a dear old fellow from Aisholt way. A century ago Gresswell described the combe: ‘‘The slopes are closely covered with slender trunks deep in leaf mould… Some distance up there is a little sacred well, stone covered and mossy but whether there were originally 7, I do not know. It does seem to be an extremely ancient name for the valley.
Easier to find is St David’s Well, a path to it is signed from Great Wood car park. It lies below Quantock Farm and was restored by Quantock School some years ago. Near the bottom of the path northwards through the woods from Deadwoman’s Ditch towards Lady Combe is Lady’s Fountain in Bincombe is another well, its name seems lost, struggling to exist. Certainly there are plenty of springs on the hills, invaluable for livestock and from one near Buncombe a Taunton doctor used the water to make up prescriptions. But why did some have a special significance lasting over the years so that a small structure was built over to protect them? Look for a W on a big scale 0S map to find others now lost or forgotten. It would be lovely to restore them.
Those wells in Quantock villages are better documented and are generally holy wells such as St Peter’s at Over Stowey and St John’s at Holford. St Andrew’s, Stogursey, reached by a lane from near the old cross, is worth a visit, fed by a copious supply of water. It has been used for drinking and laundry rather than curative powers, but the name Blindwell for a house at Nether Stowey tells of its supposed properties, also associated with one near Quantock Barn, Enmore. Another, St Sativola’s, near Wick Barrow and Hinckley Point, was good for both eye and skin problems.
    Somewhat different is the Devil’s Whispering Veil, not far from Bishops Lydeard church, where curses can be whispered. Was that once a holy well acquired by Satan? And there used to be a well in Pardlestone Lane, Kilve, where apparently a covey of witches met and from which locals feared to let stock drink.
Many of the old houses in the area had their own water supply giving beautifully cold water to drink and also useful to store perishables in their depths before the days of fridges. But although they rarely did the owners any harm a lot would not pass to-day’s tests for drinking, often they were not far from the outside privy!
Audrey Mead.
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