Our Well Dressing Ceremony

Well history

February 2009 - Kissing Gate

The start of 2009 has shown all sorts of activity. The next part of the project involves contractors levelling the ground and preparing for the stone mason. We are also having a kissing date installed ( suitable for a lover well don't you think!) and a small wooden sign pointing towards the well

Location of proposed leaflets

Before creating a leaflet for the well I wanted to approach the local rector Michael Wishart. He informed me that they had received Heritage Lottery awarded a grant for £23, 700, which will enable a Medieval Fayre to take place on 12/13 September 2009 in the field opposite the well. He informed me that planning for which has already begun and it promises to be even better than last year. The theme is, the Charter of Edward I, which will be pivotal to the entire proceedings, and, involves local schools and the museum, the Fayre . He was most interested in the well and said in his 5 years of being in the parish he had never heard of it. He has agreed for leaflets when ready to be placed in both St Thomas Church at Cothelstone and St Marys Church at Bishops Lydeard.

Dating the Well

I have been fortunate to be offered help in this department by Dr Richard Lee is a researcher from the National Wells Index run by http://www.hereditarius.org.uk his response was as follows:

" The well is a most interesting site. There are numerous comparisons for the structure, especially in the South West. The diagnostic element is the doorway. Both Horn and the EH SMR point to this doorway being Medieval and, though this is said with deep reservation on my behalf, I cannot see anything to explicitly challenge this logic.
The logic is as follows: the door conforms to a sub-group of a style of gothic design, also known by, and indeed cited by Horn as, the perpendicular style. Now because the date range for the Gothic style is 12ish to early 16th century, and the perpendicular exists mostly from the 14th to early 16th century, so the well is late medieval.
Now as to my thinking on this. Well this is such a provincial piece of work it is hard to guess what style it is, or even if it was meant to imitate a style. I think the perpendicular dating is optimistic, but it still appears to lend a credible date to the site I think when the broader history of wells is considered. I doubt this doorway is symptomatic of the gothic revival from the mid 18th century, so I think until anything more diagnostic comes along then I to would ascribe, with caution, for as EH says this is a very difficult to date site with little diagnostic in the architecture, to the 15-18 century with 19-20c alterations, probably with elements occurring earlier rather than later in this range. "

Dr Richard Lee