<< Our Photo Pages >> Cossington Spring - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Kent
Submitted by HOLYWELL on Friday, 04 February 2011 Page Views: 6961
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Cossington SpringCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 0.157 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Kent Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Maidstone Nearest Village: Cossington
Map Ref: TQ745599
Latitude: 51.311457N Longitude: 0.502345E
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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I have visited· I would like to visit
medwayexplorer visited on 26th Nov 2017 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 1 I explored the site of the Southern Water base today and came across the spring which interestingly has a small valley behind it, now filled with overgrowth. It would make sense that this originally flowed with water/contained a pond and was the mouth of the Cossington Springs. I would really need to trample through the overgrowth to see if any stones remained in this little valley.
This spring formed a pool is described by local historian Dunkin (1856) as a Druidical pool surrounded by sarsen stones. He describes it as:
“East of the Medway at Cossington, at the base of the hill on which Kits Coty House stands, water of the spring is intensely cold in summer and very warm in the winter.”
He records that stones and similar objects placed in the water become coated in a red tinge, which undoubtedly created deep superstition regarding their powers. He also notes that around the spring head “still lie many of the massive boulders of their temple in a well preserved semicircular form.”
Dr. Thorpe (1788) describes Cossington's spring as:
“At the bottom issue several springs, which are so cold and sharp that the water is said to cramp and kill ducks, and the flints that lie in it are tinged red as blood, and to try the experiment stones have been marked and put in, which, in less than a year's time, were of the same colour.”
Local historian Finch (1925) believes that these properties were exaggerated, and were certainly not considered when the water company took charge of the water, he describes the stream as now only flowing at a meagre flow and only feeding some pools by the ruins of Cossington's Manor. Sadly, the site was been taken over by the waterworks and consequently at the spring head there is nothing of interest. Near Cossington farm, there are the ruins of the ancient manor and beneath this a rag stone pool, built to grow watercress.
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