St Hilda's Well

Trip No.159  Entry No.4  Date Added: 6th Mar 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 4th Mar 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Hilda's Well, Hinderwell: We parked just past the church in a small layby next to the A174 Hinderwell Lane, at NZ 79018 17137, as the road running past the church was very narrow. Having driven past the church to find somewhere to park, we came across a gated access with a plaque saying ‘St Hilda’s Well’, so parked and walked back to it.

The gate led onto a grassy path which led towards the well at the northern side of the church. As we walked up the path, we disturbed a very large parliament of rooks who had settled in the trees nearby; Andrew commented it was like walking into Hitchcock's 'The Birds', especially with the church dark and looming above us, with dark grey skies beyond.

Reaching the well, the well basin had clear water in it, although the large pool in front was dry and full of leaves. However, there was a steady stream of water which flowed downhill from the church, having presumably been piped away underground a short distance.

There appeared to be the top of an Anglo Saxon window head piled on top of stones at one side of the well; at the other, there was part of a very small stone coffin.

Inside the church there was also a leaflet about the church and the well. This is what is says about the well:
“We learn from Bede that S Hilda was born in 614. She was the second daughter of Hereric, great nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria. Her elder sister, Hereswith, married the King of East Anglia. Hilda was baptised in 627, along with King Edwin and some of his nobles and courtiers. In 647, Hilda decides to live as a nun in Northumbria. Aidan appointed Hilda second Abbess of Hartlepool. In 657 Hilda became the founding abbess of a new monastery at Whitby (then known as Streonshalh).

According to legend, St Hilda was asked to intercede in a drought whilst travelling throughout the parish. Her prayers were answered and the spring which appeared has continued to bubble from the hillside in the grounds of St Hilda’s Church, Hinderwell to this day. The waters were said to have healing properties particularly for eye diseases, and the Well became a place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages. The Well is the only Scheduled Ancient Monument in the parish and was renovated in the early 1900s by the Palmer family.

St Hilda is also said to be responsible for the ammonites or fossilised mollusca shells often found along this coastal stretch, as they resembled curled-up headless snakes. Again according to legend, she had prayed for all the snakes of the neighbourhood to lose their heads and turn to stone. For this reason ammonites are known locally as St Hilda’s Snakes. 19th November is St Hilda’s Day.

Hilda suffered from fever for the last six years of her life, but she continued to work until her death in 680, aged sixty-six. In her last year, she set up another monastery, fourteen miles from Whitby, at Hackness, where there is also a St. Hilda Spring. The church now standing in the village of Hinderwell (see below), is dedicated to St Hilda, but the Holy Well in the churchyard has much earlier origins and almost certainly gave its name to the village. A service to celebrate the Well is held on the first Sunday of July."

Wades Stone (South)

Trip No.159  Entry No.3  Date Added: 6th Mar 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 4th Mar 2020

Log Text: Wades Stone (South): As per our last visit, we were unable to find anyone to ask at the now Council Depot (not the Outdoor Centre as marked on the map), and couldn't see any field access into the field containing the stone, either from the corner of East Barnby Lane and the A171 (at NZ 82845 13203), or off the main road. As there were other sites we were really keen to see, we drove on without making an attempt to see this stone. Shame.

Wades Stone (North)

Trip No.159  Entry No.2  Date Added: 6th Mar 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 4th Mar 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Wade's Standing Stone (North), Brockrigg: We must have completely forgotten we'd visited this stone before, as neither of us recognised either the road or the lane leading up to the stone. However, we walked up the lane towards the farm, and followed the tractor tyre tracks up to the stone to avoid damaging the seedling plants in the field (the field was planted with small cabbage plants which had recently sprouted). The Pastscape entry says this was originally one of two stones, and we tried to look for possible signs of where the second stone may have stood, but could see nothing.

The deep erosion on the stone was interesting. I looked for the graffiti but only spotted the letters JS on its southern face. The OS map shows this stone to be placed near the Parish boundary line.

Caulks Well (Selkirk)

Trip No.158  Entry No.3  Date Added: 5th Mar 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 27th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Caulks Well, Selkirk Hill: No mention on Canmore.

We parked in a small layby at NT 47734 27869, which had been largely used for dumping road repair materials, then crossed to the northern side of the A699 and walked up (North East) to the Borders Abbey Way, and followed the track some 150 metres (part of the path were icy) to the well.

Right at the edge of the Golf Course, there is such a plentiful stream of water that there are three sources of the spring in the same small area: (1) at the base of the signpost; (2) at the well house itself, and (3) in a pool which emerges just to the south of the well house. The water tumbles down to the stream below.

Source: https://blackbob.org.uk/pdf/Trail1-SelkirkHill.pdf
Turn left, and follow the track until the Borders Abbeys Way signpost (12), turn left again, to follow the Way back to the A699. You pass the Hill Shelter (13), and a picnic bench (14), then Caulks Well (15), a drinking fountain. The water from here is so good to drink that a former Provost (who shall remain nameless!) used to bring a bottle to take water from it to have with his whisky; and an Italian woman, who met and married a soldier from Selkirk at the end of WW2, coming to live in the town, would drink nothing else."

Tamlane's Well (Carterhaugh)

Trip No.158  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th Mar 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 27th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Tamlane's Well, Carterhaugh: A delightful spot, next to the single track B7039, parts of which aren’t terribly well defined (and we ended up in a very large farmyard, having taken a wrong turn!). The well is located right by the road, in a small grassy area just to the south of a large set of the Carterhaugh farm buildings/barns, although separated it by a dry stone wall. Whilst the original well was some 2.5m behind the wall, and is now filled in, the well is now presented in a nice way, presumably to allow visitors to access the well, which was really good of the farmers.

There was a steady flow of water into a trough which then drained into a modern manhole about a metre to the south of the well trough.

Crystal Well (Benrig)

Trip No.158  Entry No.2  Date Added: 2nd Mar 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 27th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Crystal Well and Mule Gang, Benrig: We retraced our steps along the road from Hier Well almost to the wooden bridge, then turned north and followed a track through the woodland between a bank on our left hand side and the River Tweed on our right.

What looked like lime kilns came into view, although this turned out to be the very interesting Mule Gang and pump house. The gate into the Crystal Well was open, and I straddled the small stream of water emerging from it to photograph the well basin and chamber behind. The water appeared to gush straight out of gravel at the back of the well chamber.

A really beautiful location, and I’m surprised there weren’t more walkers and visitors around here.

Hier Well (Benrig)

Trip No.158  Entry No.1  Date Added: 2nd Mar 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 27th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Hier Well, Benrigg/Maxton: We first tried to get here by following St Cuthbert’s Way from the cemetery/old chapel ruins at Benrig, but there was a steep drop down to the river below on one side, and the path was muddy and slippery. Andrew said a set of steps down to the Crystal Well were too steep for me to cope with (although later, from below, they looked OK), so we tried again from the church by Glebe House (more details below).

We found the source of the spring, as described at the foot of a wooded slope, but no sign of the structure photographed by Cope, even though we walked alongside the stream to the wooden bridge looking.

A beautiful woodland location, and very peaceful. On the far side of the ford, another well (Well-brae) was marked on the OS map, but after heavy rain in the area, the ford was too deep to cross at this point, without wellies, which we didn't have.

Edinburgh Runestone

Trip No.157  Entry No.4  Date Added: 20th Feb 2020
Site Type: Carving Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 18th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Access 4

Log Text: Edinburgh Runestone, George's Square: A friend very kindly told me this stone has now been relocated, although it is still in the process of being bedded into its new spot, with the concrete shuttering still around its base.

The red cross on the eastern narrow side of the stone has now been picked out in red paint. The plain, southern side, is presumably to be hidden by shrubs once the bed is replanted.

St Mary Magdalene (Hart)

Trip No.156  Entry No.4  Date Added: 12th Feb 2020
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 5th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: St Mary Magdalene, Hart: From the exterior of the building, I did not expect to 'walk back in time' into this splendid parish church. Such a sense of history, and what fragments of sculptured stones - a real treat. The church was only open for an hour on Wednesdays, between 3pm and 4pm at this time of year, essentially for quiet prayer, but the time flew, and we kept the church warden longer than intended. I would have loved to have spent another hour here, just enjoying the atmosphere.

St Hilda's Wayside Cross (Hartlepool)

Trip No.156  Entry No.2  Date Added: 11th Feb 2020
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 5th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Wayside Cross base outside St Hilda's Church: I spotted this more by accident than design, and photographed it, before we rushed off to the old Gray Art Gallery and Museum site to try and track down its old site. We couldn't find it where the grid reference placed it. A worker from the now office building, William Gray House, which now houses the Council and Tees Archaeology, told us the art gallery had closed in 1995 although people still came looking for it. He had no knowledge of a cross base in the grounds.

It wasn't until I got home and was doing some research that I came across the HE entry, which we hadn't seen earlier, which told us the cross base had been moved to this location in 1997.

St Hilda's Church (Hartlepool)

Trip No.156  Entry No.1  Date Added: 11th Feb 2020
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 5th Feb 2020. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Hilda's, the Headland, Hartlepool: What a magnificent building, with its collection of huge flying buttresses supporting the external walls of the tower. Inside, it is more like a mini-cathedral than a parish church.

We had the pleasure of being greeted by Mr. John Hogg, parishioner with responsibility for Visitor Ministry, and the most knowledgeable guide we could wish to meet.

We spent almost the full hour and a half looking round the church, the fragments in the Brus Chapel and the old south door, plus admiring the Hildthryth stone in the St Nicholas Chapel. I just wish the opening hours of the church had been longer, as I was really interested to see the display boards located around the south and north walls of the nave.

The altar rails are also interesting, as they are made of 1,000 year old oak (but do look Victorian!). A real gem, and well worth a visit.

Pocklington's Druid Stone

Trip No.155  Entry No.3  Date Added: 15th Jan 2020
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 12th Jan 2020. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Pockington's Druid Stone at the Bowder Stone: A short distance from the Bowder Stone, almost hidden from sight by a small cottage, this 'modern' monolith stands on top of a rocky outcrop high above the road below. At first, I thought it might be a memorial, as there appeared to be writing on the stone. Getting closer, the 'writing' was just striations on the stone.

Bowder Stone

Trip No.155  Entry No.2  Date Added: 15th Jan 2020
Site Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 12th Jan 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Bowder Stone, Borrowdale: We parked in the car park (there is a small charge) and walked the quarter of a mile to this enormous boulder. The last time we came here, some time ago, we walked through the quarry and I remember photographing all the old tree roots emerging from the rock and forming strange and complex patterns. Not so now, a recent path runs uphill, following the western side of the boundary for the quarry.

As usual, there was a party of young people, complete with mattresses, bouldering underneath the overhang. It was amusing to stand and watch them, although some of the tumbles looked a bit painful.

Andrew headed up the ladder to the platform at the top, whilst I wandered round the other side of the stone, a megalith catching my eye.

Borrowdale Stone Monument

Trip No.155  Entry No.1  Date Added: 15th Jan 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 12th Jan 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Borrowdale Yews and the possible stone monument: Our first trip out for several months, and a way of escaping the windy and wet weather here in Northumberland. However, we arrived in a Cumbria that had experienced very heavy rain over recent days, and the small stream were swollen and many of the roads were flooded, although still passable.

We parked in the small car park near Seathwaite Farm, which is also a camping site and walked through the fields to the two bridges crossing the river(s). There are also a number of other streams to be crossed between here and the yew tree enclosure; at times of dry weather these would be easy to cross. On this occasion, a bit of balancing on convenient ‘stepping stones’ was in order!

The slope up to the yew tree enclosure was very slippery, so I sent Andrew up with the camera to explore. He came back saying the stones are definitely aligned in what seems to be a row, although I remained very sceptical, as there are a huge number of other boulders (large and small) on the hillside. Looking at the site from the south of river, by the car park, there seems to be the remains of the lower half of a double stone circle to the south west of the yew tree enclosure, although this could also just be coincidence.

This area was very heavily mined for graphite from 1555 onwards, and the remains of some of the industrial buildings can still be seen.

Sorry, but I remain unconvinced this is a stone row or alignment – there were so many other short rows of seemingly aligned stones on the hillside, this seemed like coincidence to me.

St Nicholas's Cathedral (Newcastle)

Trip No.154  Entry No.2  Date Added: 21st Oct 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 16th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: St Nicholas's Cathedral, Newcastle: I'd arranged with one of the vergers, James, to meet him at noon on 16th October to be allowed down into the vault below the south transept to see the cross slabs now stored down there.

The space is now used as a chair store, with a scissor lift at its southern end, and a larger trap door which comes up underneath the piano in the south transept.

Access was through a trap door, with a vertical ladder which started a couple of feet below the floor of the transept, so I bottled out of climbing down, and sent Andrew down with the camera.

He reported that it was really interesting seeing this space, with its barrel vaulted ceiling, but the slabs had all been stored against a wall underneath a pile of tables and other general items. What he could see looked very worn, which is presumably why they were stored down here in the first place. The stones must have deteriorated alarmingly in the 100 years or so since they were drawn by C.C. Hodges.

Disappointing. They were tuning the organ whilst we were there, which was interesting. The open trap door caused interest from other visitors to the Cathedral who wanted to look down. I volunteered to stop anyone falling down the trapdoor, so got to talk to quite a few people who were interesting in seeing this space.

St Nicholas's Cathedral (Newcastle)

Date Added: 21st Oct 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 6th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Nicholas's Cathedral, Newcastle: We went to photograph the four cross slabs recorded by Ryder in St Margaret's Chapel, plus two others - one in the western of the three tomb recesses in the south wall of the south aisle; the other in the south wall of the south transept, at its eastern end.

I've since arranged to return on 16th October to photograph the slabs now stored in the vault under the south transept, although access is through a trapdoor and down a ladder!

Girth Cross (Canongate)

Trip No.153  Entry No.4  Date Added: 9th Oct 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 1st Oct 2019. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Site of the Girth Cross, Canongate: Again, we picked this location up from the Treasure Trail, after Clue 15, there is a ‘Did you know?’ box which reads: “Where Canongate meets Abbeyhill look out for the circle of cobbles. This is the site of the ‘Old Girth Cross’ where proclamations and executions took place. In 1600 Lady Warriston was beheaded by guillotine for conspiring to murder her abusive husband”.

This site is at a very busy road junction, west of Holyrood Palace, and at the eastern end of Canongate, where Canongate meets Abbeyhill, Abbey Strand and Horse Wynd.

Not much to see really, apart from a circle of grey pavers

Canongate Mercat Cross

Trip No.153  Entry No.2  Date Added: 9th Oct 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 1st Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Canongate Mercat Cross: Again, we found this cross by chance by following the clues on the "Old Edinburgh Town" Treasure Trail, whilst looking for the answers to two clues within the churchyard. I am sure I annoyed my friend by stopping to photograph all the sites of ancient crosses and wells that we came across, as our 2 hour 'trail' took 4 hours (although this included a coffee and cake stop, too).

Never really having explored Edinburgh Old Town, I was really surprised to find out how much, and how historic, Canongate and surrounding area is.

Thimbleby Nine Stones

Trip No.2  Entry No.1  Date Added: 9th Oct 2019
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Nine Stones Stone Row, near Osmotherley, North Yorkshire: Having added a few of the Stone Rows of Great Britain sites on the Portal, and needing to go down to Thirsk it was too much of a temptation to resist visiting one or two of the North Yorkshire sites. With only a 3 hour window before having to travel onto Doncaster, the only one we could reach and explore in time was Nine Stones, just outside Osmotherley.

We’ve been to this area before to look at Anglo Saxon crosses in churches and ended up getting hopelessly lost, but this time we had the OS map and our GPS. With the sun shining down from an almost cloudless sky, we reached the car park at Square Corner easily enough. It never ceases to amaze me that there are so many more people in this part of the world than in Northumberland. There were people picnicking on the side of the road near Solomon's Temple enjoying a wonderful view over Oak Dale valley and the woods of Crabtree Bank and Thimbleby Bank Plantations.

As we pulled up, a number of dog walkers drew up, chattering noisily, and I hoped they weren’t going to follow us and destroy the peace and quiet of the afternoon (I’m definitely getting to be a grumpy old woman!). Fortunately, they followed the Cleveland Way up the hill to the south.

From the car park, we walked the couple of hundred metres to the gate where the footpath west over Thimbleby Moor and the Cleveland Way southwards meet. The GPS told us there was almost 700 metres to walk to Nine Stones, so we set off over the stile over the wall by a second gate to the west. The first couple of hundred yards were easy walking along a stoned footpath leading off to some modern shooting butts to the west. After 200 metres we needed to veer off southwards to follow the dry stone wall westwards. This was all through knee deep heather with the occasional field drain and boggy patch thrown in. After another 200 yards we realised we’d reached a much quarried area; there were deep holes full of water which we could only see when we were almost upon them. I managed to disappear up to my ankles in one, although there were other that looked far deeper.

Whilst the area has many blocks of stone poking up through the heather, towards the top of the slope there suddenly appeared on the horizon two standing stones, looming large, beckoning the walker. Here was (were?) Nine Stones, at last.

This stone row was well worth the trudge through the undergrowth. At the northern tip of the row there are five stones, two tall, two stumpy and one almost buried in the heather. We wondered which were actually part of the stone row. The north-western most stone looked as if there had been an attempt to quarry the top of it in the distant past (comparing the holes to some at Edges Green, near Cawfields) that we’ve seen recently.

Two more tall stones sit close to the stone wall, and a few more stones appear further south in the forested area. The Stone Rows of Great Britain site tell us that this stone row is 60 metres long, but husband, tramping through the forest, thought it might be possible that the row was nearer to 100 metres (but then which are natural stones and which are recumbent standing stones?).

There are so many other features in this area to explore: Miley Pike Tumulus, Robinson’s Cross (remains of), a Holy Well, Faber’s Stone – well worth a repeat visit.

West Wykes Farm Tau and Latin Crosses

Trip No.132  Entry No.16  Date Added: 9th Oct 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 13th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: West Wyke Tau and Latin Crosses: The lane to West Wyke farm and the houses here is marked private, so we parked at the viewpoint at SX 65298 93020 and walked the 600m or so up the lane - a very pleasant walk in the evening sunshine.

Despite taking the HE and Pastcape printouts with us, I didn't appreciate what I'd seen until sitting at the computer today (9th June 2019). Good job I photographed the pile of stones at the western side of the tree, as this was the Tau Cross! The smaller cross next to the entrance to the barns on the opposite side of the road is not recorded on HE or Pastscape, and I'd been really confused until re-reading the entries.