<< Our Photo Pages >> Puckwell - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Wiltshire
Submitted by kernunos on Sunday, 24 April 2005 Page Views: 5244
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: PuckwellCountry: England County: Wiltshire Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Mere Nearest Village: West Knoyle
Map Ref: ST856319
Latitude: 51.086232N Longitude: 2.20697W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Holy Well or Sacred Spring in Wiltshire.
Now just a muddy and stagnant hollow in the ground. Not the kind of place I would want to live if I was a goblin. However, the name does indicate that, unlike the majority of named wells in the UK and Eire, it has never been Christianised.
'Puca' is Old English for goblin and tends to be used only for wells that remain pagan, presumably deemed to be too demonic to be Christianised.
To visit this well park in the small carpark opposite Puckwell Cottages and take the track leading southeast along the side of Puckwell Coppice. Just before the coppice becomes a field, enter the coppice (on your right). Once in the coppice various paths lead to the well which is in a hollow near the southeastern corner of the coppice. The instructions that we had said the well was best located from the field behind the coppice but this appeared to be no longer the case due to thick brambles. While it appears to be just a muddy patch, I was able to push a stick into the mud to a depth of at least four feet with no great effort. When you are finished at the well you might like to turn right from the carpark and visit the grotesques at West Knoyle Church, or maybe not … it all depends on your taste in grotesques!
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