Derick Quinn has very kindly sent me a copy of a newspaper clipping (undated), which gives more information about this well, Sarah Losh (who commissioned the arch over the well), and the inscription. An extract from the article reads:
"(A reader) has been trying to find out the history of the well and is particularly interested in the ornamental arch, placed over the well in 1839 by Miss Sarah Losh, of Woodside, Wreay … The well served as the only fresh water supply for the medieval village of Brisco".
"The inhabitants of the houses which once stretched on either side of the road, having to go up and down the lonning leading to the well whenever they wanted domestic water. There is a local tradition that the water was a halting place of St. Ninian, hence its name, when towards the end of the fourth century he came back from Rome and was on his way north."
"He was on his way to found his monastery at Candida Casa, on the Isle of Whithorn, in Galloway, reputed to have been the first stone church in Britain. He is said to have preached and baptised Christians at Ninekirks, near Brougham, Penrith and at the St. Ninian's Well at Brisco."
Miss Sarah Losh, who was a great benefactress to the district, had an arched covering built over the well in ancient Saxon style. The inscription which formed part of the decoration on the stone cover, has long since worn away, but is was recorded in Upperby's parish magazine of October, 1887. It ran:
Times pass, rites change, yet cease we not to bless
That pious zeal (which every skaith defines),
Led Ninian through an arid wilderness,
To seek fresh channels for the living tide.
On that fair fane, rude converts learned to rear,
(That once clear pile) no stone his name revealed,
But still it clings to many a fountain clear,
That glads with competent rune the fragrant field."
"Even in 1887 the words shown in brackets were almost indecipherable and the writer had supplied his version of what he thought they might be".
Note: Sarah Losh also personally designed and supervised the construction of St. Mary's Church at Wreay.
Thank you to Mr. Derick Quinn for the information about this well and others in the neighbourhood.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road