<< Our Photo Pages >> St. John's Well (Somerset) - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Somerset
Submitted by HOLYWELL on Wednesday, 29 December 2010 Page Views: 5245
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: St. John's Well (Somerset)Country: England
NOTE: This site is 4.339 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Somerset Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Taunton Nearest Village: Wembdon
Map Ref: ST282377
Latitude: 51.134053N Longitude: 3.027556W
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 |
Internal Links:
External Links:
Holy Well in Somerset
It is nice to record, for a change, an improvement in the condition of site recorded by an earlier authority. The antiquarian Horne (1923) records that the well was 'nothing much to look at...like an ordinary draw well, being a deep hole in the ground, covered at the top with a flat stone with a circular hole in it. It is situated in some garden or allotment grounds, and is not easy to find.'
The allotments have gone, with housing on the site, but instead of this usually destroying such a site it appears to have stimulated an improvement and the well is a restored stone structure befiting that found in say Cornwall. Nestled rather romantically at the bottom of a modern semi in the village centre and rather unheralded. It is large pitched roofed and tiled well house with a cross on one of its finials. One side is open to the elements, rather like a lean to and here can be seen the original circular well described by Horne brimming with clear water. I should note that as the well lies in a private garden access is only with help of the owner or in my case when I visited in the 1990s, the builder.
He also notes a 1464 report to the Bishop describing 'an immense concourse' of people have resorted to find help from 'various bodily diseases', and have been 'restored to their pristine health'.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive OS mapKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
4.6km NW 307° Cannington Camp* Hillfort (ST246405)
5.3km E 94° Chedzoy Cursus Cursus (ST33503721)
5.7km NNE 11° Pawlett Cursus Cursus (ST294433)
6.1km NNE 16° Pawlett Cursus Cursus (ST300435)
8.7km ESE 111° Westonzoyland Cursus Cursus (ST36263450)
9.4km ENE 70° Sulphur spring Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST37124085)
9.5km WNW 302° St Andrew's Well (Stogursey)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST20224282)
9.9km W 261° Plainsfield Camp* Misc. Earthwork (ST18433622)
10.4km SE 143° Athelney* Hillfort (ST344293)
10.9km ENE 77° Holy Well (Edington)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST3888639970)
11.4km WSW 238° St. Agnes Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST18423186)
11.8km ESE 110° Greylake Mesolithic open-air cemetery Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (ST393335)
11.9km WSW 257° Wills Neck* Barrow Cemetery (ST16533516)
11.9km W 261° Triscombe Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST16363592)
12.0km W 271° Dead Woman's Ditch* Misc. Earthwork (ST162381)
12.3km W 276° Dowsborough Castle* Hillfort (ST160392)
12.5km NNE 21° Unknown earthworks at Edithmead* Misc. Earthwork (ST32864933)
12.6km W 263° Great Hill Platform cairn* Barrow Cemetery (ST15653625)
12.8km W 267° West Hill Platform Cairn* Cairn (ST15423717)
12.9km W 271° Wilmots Pool Cairn* Cairn (ST15303813)
13.3km W 266° Fire Beacon Cairn* Cairn (ST14913697)
13.3km S 190° Cambria Farm Ancient Village or Settlement (ST257246)
13.5km W 271° Black Hill Tumuli* Barrow Cemetery (ST14653819)
13.9km SW 235° Devil's Whispering Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST1671029841)
13.9km W 271° Hurley Beacon Tumulus* Cairn (ST14223808)
View more nearby sites and additional images