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<< Our Photo Pages >> St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Lincolnshire

Submitted by HOLYWELL on Saturday, 08 January 2011  Page Views: 8817

Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) Alternative Name: Seven Springs
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 3.448 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Lincolnshire Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Gainsborough  Nearest Village: Hemswell
Map Ref: SK932911
Latitude: 53.408494N  Longitude: 0.599441W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Rainbird9 would like to visit

Catrinm visited on 5th Jan 2020 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 quite easy to find taking footpath up hill. There is definitely more than one spring and the one under the Devils pulpit (St Helens) was flowing well. The resultant stream goes through houses gardens and through the village. Also saw the Maypole

St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)
St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) submitted by HOLYWELL : View looking down at the seven springs site with a spring arising beneath the photographer and ones to the right and left. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Sacred Spring in Lincolnshire

Seven springs apparently rise from the spring wells and one of these is dedicated to St Helen’s Well. The site has an eerie but not unquiet atmosphere this is possibly due to the stone called the Devil’s pulpit, a large approximately six foot high piece of sandstone under which a small spring arises. This Thompson (1999) on his work on wells and springs in the county notes local opinion thought was St. Helen’s, he said it tasted sweeten than the other waters (a fact that I cannot testify as the spring has appeared to have almost dried up the year I went). Binnall (1845) notes that the spring wells were regarded as possessing curative powers and rags were hung on the surrounding bushes.

The village name deriving from Helmes, gen. sing. of the OE masculine name Helm, or from helmes, gen. sing. of OE helm ‘a helmet, the summit of a hill, a shelter’, so that the name is either ‘Helm's spring’ or ‘spring at the summit or shelter’ which rather neatly defines its topography. However, other authorities suggest its gets its name from elm trees which once grew around the wells. Of the pupil local children are said to have once poke pins into it and ran around it several times. After this they thought they could hear the Devil speaking from deep underground. There is a very old maypole also in the village so perhaps the 'old ways' were strong in this village.

The Northern Antiquarian (TNA) also features a page for this site - see their entry for St Helen’s Well, Hemswell, Lincolnshire, which gives directions for finding this site, together with a brief description and local folklore.
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St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)
St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) submitted by HOLYWELL : Close up of St. Helen's spring showing the Devil's Pulpit above. Ironically considering the folklore there was a children's swing above. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)
St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) submitted by HOLYWELL : Longer view of St. Helen's Well with another more active spring to the side. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)
St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) submitted by HOLYWELL : St Helen's spring Hemswell is unfortunately looking dry. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)
St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) submitted by Catrinm : St Helen's well and Devil's Pulpit. Jan 20 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
SK9391 : Lane at Hemswell by Jonathan Thacker
by Jonathan Thacker
©2011(licence)
SK9391 : Path heading northwards from Hemswell by Neil Theasby
by Neil Theasby
©2016(licence)
SK9391 : Entering Hemswell by Jonathan Thacker
by Jonathan Thacker
©2011(licence)
SK9391 : Scarecrow in the allotments north of Hemswell by Neil Theasby
by Neil Theasby
©2016(licence)
SK9390 : Hemswell village by Steve  Fareham
by Steve Fareham
©2014(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 2.7km ESE 118° Aisthorpe springs Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SK956899)
 5.1km ESE 107° Newell's Well (Glentham) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SK981897)
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 19.2km N 4° Gokwell Priory (Broughton) Misc. Earthwork (SE94081028)
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 20.1km SSE 168° The Collection, Lincoln* Museum (SK9771471547)
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 21.0km ENE 62° Syfer Spring Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TA117012)
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 21.2km SSE 161° Lincoln Greetwell Henge/disc barrow* Barrow Cemetery (TF00407110)
 21.3km N 351° Crosby Stone Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (SE893121)
 21.7km WSW 242° Castle Hill (Nottinghamshire) Hillfort (SK741806)
 21.8km NE 48° Holy Wells (Barnetby le Wold) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TA091061)
 22.0km SSE 158° Washingborough Ancient Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (TF019709)
 22.2km WSW 249° St John's Well (Welham) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SK72558280)
 22.4km S 173° Lincoln stone circle* Modern Stone Circle etc (SK962689)
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"St. Helen's Well (Hemswell)" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: St. Helen's Well (Hemswell) by Rainbird9 on Sunday, 02 April 2023
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We visited St Helens Well today. Easy to access via a public footpath. There is a steep incline to navigate in order to get down to the well but it was worth the effort. Following the March rain the water was flowing freely. We will return. A haunt of ancient peace.
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