A Holy Well - Lake District
Channel: Marianne B
Date: 2012-01-28

This is one of the many Holy Well's in the Lake District.  
A natural cave carved out by water, this is in the south of the county.  
It is truly amazing and beautiful.  Most are in the north of Cumbria.

Below is an extract from an article published by The Whitehaven News  in 2010-  saying  that not enough is made of Cumbria's Holy Wells. 

The same year the government said it "is satisfied that geological disposal of higher activity radioactive waste, including waste from new nuclear power stations, is technically achievable and that a suitable site can be identified for the geological disposal of higher activity radioactive waste"     ..........UNHOLY WELLS NO THANKS!

THE SEARCH FOR WEST CUMBRIA'S HOLY WELLS
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Alan Cleaver peers into Cumbria's holy wells...

In many parts of the country, holy wells have been restored and have become popular tourist spots and helped preserve a valuable part of our history. Only Stanger Spa in West Cumbria has been rescued to date but it would be nice to see more made of the likes of Gosforth holy well.

Various attempts have been made to catalogue the wells before they vanish completely. Here we list some of West Cumbria's more famous holy wells. If you can name any more, do let us know:
St Catherine's Well, Eskdale
ST Catherine's Well in the magnificent Eskdale Valley appears to have been the host of an annual fair known as the Dogskin fair, held on the Saint's day (November 25). Further details have proved elusive, but there may be some connection with the Catty Fair held at St Catherine's Church on the same day. Then, yarn used to be hung on the churchyard wall. The well is less than quarter of a mile from the church, and it is unlikely the area supported two fairs on the same day.
Legend has it that in the Sixth Century a hermit lived on Arment Hill -- quarter of a mile east of the parish church of Saint Catherine. People used to travel miles to seek his prayers and healing. 
St Catherine's Well was excavated by the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological and Antiquities Society in 1925, under the auspices of Mary Fair.
For a while the well water was used for baptisms but within a few years of the excavation, it had once more become overgrown.
Its precise location is now unclear but Eskdale's Local History Society is holding a holy well walk on Monday, March 29 when it is hoped the site will be rediscovered. If you wish to join the walk, it starts at 6.30pm from St Catherine's Church, Eskdale.
Gosforth
Holy Well
THE well at Gosforth is still visible today. It is situated about half a mile from the church.
A tradition was recorded in 1884 from a former tenant of Gosforth Hall, West Cumbria, that at certain festivals (not specified) wine was poured in to a well and the people were encouraged to catch it as it came out of the spout -- though it must have been well diluted by then. At the time this story was told, the location of the well was lost. Old maps showed the ruins of a chapel about a half mile away from the present church, with the site of the well marked by it, but the well's position was added to the maps as a matter of tradition; there was no actual well on the site marked. It was only found again when the ruins of the chapel were excavated in 1901, for there was the well in the middle of the chapel, which was built symmetrically around the sacred spring. Today the ruins are virtually overgrown again, but the well is topped by a concrete slab with an inspection cover. 
The water remains beautifully clear and the original stone work inside the well is still visible. A well at Bothel was said to have run blood on the day of Charles I's 'martyrdom'; this may be a memory of a similar kind of ceremony to the one at Gosforth.

Stanger Spa
STANGER Spa, near Cockermouth, is perhaps the most prominent spring still surviving thanks to some restoration work by the Cockermouth And District Civic Trust in 2000, which preserved the building surrounding it.
The well is a couple of miles south of Cockermouth and easily reached via a public footpath.
A plaque on the well records that the water was so famed for its curative properties in the mid-1800s that it was sold at 6d a bottle. However by 1901, Bulmer's History and Directory of Cumberland reported that the well "is now very little frequented".
Physical or Physika Well
REFERENCE is made in Frizington Remembers by residents of Greenvale Court of a holy well near the village. "Walks to Dub Beck at the foot of Steele Brow or to physical or physika well were popular during the summer holidays" the book relates.

First published at 15:40, Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk