Tracy Musgrove here is St Audreys Well Ely. I had to arrange access via the whose grounds it is in..but I found out it is accessible by a footpath near the golf course. Mind you I am glad I did contact the school as I got to see the largest Plane tree in the UK and inside their private medieval chapel! Its only a muddy pool though...it does have an old history. It is noted in the 12th century that a spring arose at the place where she was first buried and of this spring: “If any sick people take a drink from this spring, or have been sprinkled with its water, it is reported that they subsequently recover their original vigour.... in account of her merits, are acquainted with remedies and assiduous in curing the sick”. It is noted that the monks made the spring site into a pit like cistern so that they could collect some of their water. A number of miracles are associated with the well. One tells how a blind women washing her face and eyes became able to see, how a man travelled from Northamptonshire to be healed and found the door locked. He was apparently barred entrance and was told that there was no bucket at the well and nothing to collect it with. He did not take no as an answer and so barged his way in where he found the well overflowing into the courtyard and thus cupped some water into his hands. He evoked the saint’s name and as he did so began to recover. Another story tells how a woman fell into the well after accidently being pushed in by a crowd at the well. She was apparently left in the water for two hours and was found still alive by the monks. The metrical Life and Miracles of St Æthelthryth by Gregory of Ely, c.1120 (noted in Thompson & Stevens (1988) states that ‘the holy precinct of the church includes a spring’, but does not identify this as a holy well; the original grave of St Audrey lay ‘somewhere in the vicinity of the former Bishop’s Palace, the area close to the Fountain Inn, and the present St Mary’s Church, where the water-table is high’ This was where: “...where the people of the neighbourhood do now resort to drink the waters of it, it being a sort of mineral water”. The site is shown on a Moore’s map of the fens dated in 1684 shown as St. Aldreth’s Well.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 09:56:47 +0000
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