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Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe, Scarre

Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe, Scarre

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<< Text Pages >> Nicker Pits - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Kent

Submitted by HOLYWELL on Tuesday, 01 March 2011  Page Views: 5316

Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Nicker Pits Alternative Name: Crosse well, Nicher well, Hydon Hole
Country: England County: Kent Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Canterbury  Nearest Village: Westmere
Map Ref: TR000200
Latitude: 50.944738N  Longitude: 0.845641E
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
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 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.
no data 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
1

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Specific location of this site is not known. Nicker Pits in the Westmere marshes, unusually appears to have been missed by earlier writers. It is of great interest for it indicates the preservation of Saxon traditions of water monsters in the county, akin to the better known Nucor Hole at Lyminster, West Sussex

Brent (1860) suggests that local belief was that they were bottomless. The only other note of this site is a simply as a place name by Woodruff (1895) who notes a court appearance for the 27th January 1729 for ‘Jno Allen - For not laying a bridge between Nicher well and Hydon Hole.’ Sadly there is no map place name upon which one can extract the exact site of these pits. Furthermore, local knowledge would appear to be lacking, and whatever colourful legends associated with it, the marshes have claimed them.
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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
TQ9920 : Track from Scotney Court Farm by Oast House Archive
by Oast House Archive
©2010(licence)
TQ9920 : Drainage Channel near Wainway Gate by David Anstiss
by David Anstiss
©2010(licence)
TQ9920 : Track from Scotney Court Farm by David Anstiss
by David Anstiss
©2010(licence)
TQ9920 : Track to Scotney Court Farm by Oast House Archive
by Oast House Archive
©2010(licence)
TQ9920 : Well near Scotney Court Farm by Oast House Archive
by Oast House Archive
©2010(licence)

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 7.7km W 274° Queen's Elizabeth's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ923202)
 9.6km NW 324° Hogwell Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ940275)
 9.7km WSW 258° St. Katherine's Well (Winchelsea)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ90601760)
 10.3km W 259° St. Leonard's Well (Winchelsea)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ899177)
 10.9km NNW 337° Appledore Round Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (TQ95412993)
 16.3km NNE 18° Bilsington Priory Holy Well Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TR04433565)
 16.8km NNE 27° Aldington Knoll Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (TR07083525)
 17.7km NNE 33° Our Lady's Well (Court-At-Street) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TR090353)
 19.6km WSW 241° East Hill Settlement Ancient Village or Settlement (TQ832099)
 20.4km WSW 242° St Clements Caves Cave or Rock Shelter (TQ823098)
 20.7km WSW 242° Hastings Castle* Hillfort (TQ821095)
 20.8km NW 306° Jacob's Well (Kent) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ82703155)
 21.0km WSW 245° St. Andrew's Spa Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ813104)
 21.9km NE 49° Holywelle Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TR161349)
 22.0km NE 45° Willow Wood Barrow Round Barrow(s) (TR15023612)
 22.7km N 354° Gold well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ96904250)
 24.5km NE 43° Tolsford Hill Barrows Round Barrow(s) (TR160386)
 24.6km N 358° Lady well (Hothfield) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TQ98054452)
 24.6km NNE 31° Stowting Court Barrow Round Barrow(s) (TR11904161)
 25.9km NNE 32° Swinyard's Hill Tumulus Round Barrow(s) (TR12784255)
 26.0km NE 47° Elm Gardens Mound Artificial Mound (TR183385)
 26.1km NNE 33° Tumulus farm Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (TR1348742346)
 26.1km NNE 33° Stone Street Barrow Round Barrow(s) (TR13354250)
 26.3km NE 40° St. Ethelburga's Well (Lyminge)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TR161408)
 26.4km NE 40° St. Eadburg's Well Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TR16174088)
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"Nicker Pits" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Nichor Pits by Andy B on Monday, 07 November 2011
(User Info | Send a Message)
From Geologist Magazine, December f 1860.

NiCKEE Pits. — Dear Sir, — ^About two miles from Canterbury, in the
marshes of West Bere Level, are a number of pools called Nicker Pits. Some
of them are very deep, and springs of clear water rise up to the surface, the
water finding its way into the marsh ditches, and thus escaping into the river
Stour, near the banks of which the pools are situated. Many of them are
funnel-shaped in the middle, and when standing on the margin, any one looking
into the water can see a long way down. The people in the neighbourhood
believe them to be of an awful depth. One man told me that an eel-pot had
been lowered into one of the pits seventeen rods, but it did not reach the
bottom.

There is some high ground close to the marshes where probably the water
whicli supplies the springs is collected. The soil of the marsh is peaty, and
that of tne fields adjoining of clay.

The name of these pools, or pits, is remarkable, and makes one fancy that it
is connected with some early tradition of our Saxon or Danish fore&theis.

Jacob Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, bb. 456, Zweete Ausgabe), under the
article " Nichus,'* enters somewhat circumstantially into the derivation of the
word. Nichusy crocodilus. Nikr^ old Norse for hippopotamus, &c. Mones
nl volkslit, s. 140, Nikker has the meaning of evil spint, deviL " AJle lukkers
nit de hel." Swedbh, ndk, nek; Danish, nok, nok, &c., all express tiie mean-
ing of a water-ghost or demon. In the Anglo-Saxon the word has the same
meaning. Beov. 838, 1144, 2854 :—

"And on ydum slog,
Niceras nihtes."

" And on the waves I slew
Nicors by night."

Odinn was called, according to Snarro, Nikarr, or Knickarr, and when the
Scandinavians were converted to Christianity, the god was metamorphosed
into the popular Devil, by way of opprobrium. Thus, " Old Nick" became a
surname of Odin and the Devil.

J. Kemble, in the glossary to the An^lo-Saxon poem Beowulf, explains the
word ; thus. Nicer (m) monstrum fluviatile, a nick or nix. Oha nehhar,
whence the name of the beautiful river (the Neckkar) upon which Heidelberg
stands. Old Nick, eald nicer Sathanas.

I send you these few imperfect remarks in the hope some of your numerous
correspondents may have heard of similar pits in other neighbourhoods ; and
it will be curious if they bear the same popiuar name.

The superstitious feeling of the people living near them appears to connect
them with something which the Scotch would call uncanny. — I am, dear Sir,
yours truly, Jo FN Brent, Barton.

http://www.archive.org/stream/geologistapopul00unkngoog/geologistapopul00unkngoog_djvu.txt
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Nichor Pits by h_fenton on Saturday, 26 March 2011
(User Info | Send a Message)
I think the Grid Reference for this site may be incorrect. The position given is almost six miles off Dungeness, out in the English Channel!
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Nichor Pits by Andy B on Monday, 07 November 2011
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Thanks, the location of this site is not known. I have moved it inland but I can't even find where Westmere marshes are.
    [ Reply to This ]

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