<< Our Photo Pages >> St Walstan's Well - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Norfolk
Submitted by HOLYWELL on Tuesday, 29 August 2006 Page Views: 12491
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: St Walstan's WellCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 4.279 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Norfolk Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Norwich Nearest Village: Bawburgh
Map Ref: TG15350878
Latitude: 52.634018N Longitude: 1.180952E
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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This well has been the pilgrimage goal of many agriculturalists over the nine centuries of its existence and lies not inappropriately in an orchard, a suitable site for a site connected with so-called "farm hand" saint. It is recorded that after resting at Costessey this funeral procession continued and once crossing the Yare, at Bawburgh, they again halted here, and here the third and final spring arose, and its most noted.
The saint's body was transferred through a special opening made in the north wall of the church and this arch can still be seen, now blocked up. His shrine was then established in the north transept of the Parish church of St Mary the Virgin, since then known as St Mary and St Walstan, as a separate chapel. The saint was canonised by the diocesan Bishop, who visited the site, with a large procession of priests, and hearing of his holiness:
‘The bishop gave an ear and hearkened sore,
And allowed him a Saint evermore.’
From this point on the well and its shrine was the goal of pilgrims, first from neighbouring villages, and then from Norwich (along Earlham Green Lane), and then after the news of its powers spread across England from farther afield. In particular farmers would bring their sick animals to the well to have them cured. In fact the well and shrine were so popular that a college of priests were established to control and administer the large numbers of pilgrims.
Unfortunately as with most shrines the Reformation had a destructive effect, and the shrine was dismantled, its relics scattered over the fields and lost forever.
Yet despite this wanton destruction St Walstan's Well continued to be visited, and even through the Commonwealth period, superstitious farmers would visit the well collecting its healing waters for their sick animals. With the return of Catholicism the well saw new pilgrimage and religious pilgrims only begun to return en masse to the well in the 19th Century.
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