Maiden's Well (Uttoxeter)
[[File:|thumb|right|500px|The mesh covering and brick walls of the Maiden's Well can be seen to the left of the drive / Google Earth Street View.]]
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-10-18. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-10-18.
Maiden's Well in Uttoxeter, is now situated in a private garden, at 21 Highwood Road, Uttoxeter. It was formerly known as Marian's Well, or perhaps this was an alternative name; it was thus named already in 1658. A local historian suggested in 1886 that the element 'Marian' referred to Maid Marian.
As late as c. 1800 the well was still known locally for its supposedly healing waters and was, moreover, believed to be haunted by the ghost of a beautiful young lady. Yet a couple of generations later it was largely forgotten. Writing in the 1860s to 1880s, Uttoxeter local historian Francis Redfern believed the well dated back to the time, if not of the Celts, then the Romans or at least the Anglo-Saxons (see Allusions below).[1] Modern archaeologists have expressed doubt about the antiquity of the well; Redfern had access to a 1658 survey of Uttoxeter in which the well was listed under the name 'Marian's Well', so it clearly was not of recent date, even if this does not make it ancient. In the mud near the well he found a stone with what he and a few other local gentlemen agreed must be an Ogham inscription.[2] In 1957 an archaeologist felt that this was 'probably a typical mis-identification of his period'.[3]
... an] interesting well, which is situated close to the road side on the High Wood, a little south of Balance Hill tollgate, on the left hand side, has the name of Maiden's Well, Maiden's Wall Well, and Marian's Well. I have previously attempted, when speaking of Roman ways, to show how it may have acquired the name of Maiden's Well. At the same time the name may be a corruption from Mai-din, a British word applied to a fort. It appears to have been notorious in Saxon times, from the Saxons having given it the name of Wall Well from the Latin, vallum, a wall. The well is now enclosed in a field, but formerly it was evidently open to the road, and a wide space of the bank side of the land has been removed on its account, and although this escarpment round or along the back of the well is much worn and broken, it [p. 348:] may have formed the vallum or wall, from which Wall Well is derived. From the great celebrity of the well, the floral festivity of the Maid, Marian, the wife of Robin Hood, has probably been celebrated at it, from which circumstance it would readily and naturally receive the distinction of Marian's Well.
Road side wells were particularly appreciated in Saxon days. Travelling being difficult and tedious, and there existing no houses of refreshment, way-side wells were of great importance and convenience. This was so much the case that Edwin, King of Northumbria, A.D. 628, had stakes driven down at them and a brazen dish affixed thereto with a chain, so that the fatigued way-farer might be enabled to refresh himself.
Gazetteers
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-311
- Megalithic Portal: Maiden's Well – Holy Well or Sacred Spring in England in Staffordshire
- PastScape: Maidens Well.
Maps
- 25" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.2 (c. 1882; surveyed c. 1881). No Copy in NLS
- 25" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.2 (1901; rev. 1900) (georeferenced)
- 25" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.2 (1901; rev. 1900)
- 25" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.2 (1922; rev. 1920)
- 25" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.2 (1939; rev. 1937)
- 6" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.NW (1884; surveyed 1881)
- 6" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.NW (1901; rev. 1899–1900) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Staffordshire XXXII.NW (1901; rev. 1899–1900)
- 6" O.S. map Derbyshire LII (1924; rev. 1920).
Notes
- ↑ Also Redfern, F. 'On Uttoxeter and the Archæological Remains of the Parish and Neighbourhood', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol. XXIX (1873), pp. 263-78, see pp. 267, 270: Redfern, F. 'Additional Observations on Uttoxeter', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol. XXIX (1873), pp. 302-303, see p. 302.
- ↑ {:Redfern, Francis 1873a}}, see p. 270.
- ↑ PastScape: Maidens Well.