<< Our Photo Pages >> St Cuthbert's Well (County Durham) - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in County Durham
Submitted by kiwiBetsy on Wednesday, 01 December 2004 Page Views: 14727
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: St Cuthbert's Well (County Durham)Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.111 km away from the location you searched for.
County: County Durham Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Durham
Map Ref: NZ2727642218
Latitude: 54.774144N Longitude: 1.577516W
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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Anne T visited on 30th Apr 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 2 Access: 4 St. Cuthbert's Well, Durham: We had difficulty in locating this well from the 6 digit grid reference, so I've updated it with the official 10 digit reference from Pastscape.
From the Galilee Well, we took the steps/sloping path down to the riverside, then walked up and down, down and up, past the Old Fulling Mill to Prebend Bridge and back. Mystified by the grid reference, I stood with my phone looking up notes on the internet, trying to get a better grid reference. We knew it was near some steep steps, thanks to the entry by kiwiBetsy, but had difficulty locating the exact site. We must have looked so lost that two passing students heading to the Boat House asked us where we were looking for, but couldn't help, shrugged and walked off!
In the end, husband Andrew ran back up the footpath towards the city and spotted this structure half way up the hillside. There are two sets of steps to it – one almost from the path running next to the river (although these are now so overgrown that the path has disappeared in places); the second set of steps runs from the well structure back up to the cathedral.
There was a flow of water, but a trickle. Against the side of the footpath there was a second well structure, perhaps tapping the water so people who couldn’t make it up the steps could get water.
What we found after a scramble was the largest sandstone surround of any well in Britain and a significant amount of rubbish and graffiti.
The arch over the actual well bore the inscription "Fons: Cuthbert" and the date 1600 (or perhaps 1660) and the reason that I’m in the picture is to camouflage the worst of the graffiti.
St Cuthbert’s body was brought to Durham in 995 AD, 120 years after monks first fled with it from Lindisfarne to escape the Vikings. He now lies secure in the Cathedral above this well dedicated to him.
We have been able to find out very little about the well except an interesting comment that it seems strange that such an imposing structure should have so little known about it and that the water supply had diminished since extension work on the nearby university library. There was certainly a good flow of water when we were there.
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