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Sites Anne T has logged on trip number: 128 (View all trips)
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St George's Well (Minsteracres)
Trip No.128 Entry No.1 Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
St George's Well (Minsteracres) submitted by Anne T on 7th May 2019. Getting closer, the structure of the well emerges from the surrounding tall trees. There is a semi-circular back wall, which has no exit tap or pipe; water must emerge directly from the ground into the small, circular well basin inside a larger, paved well pool.
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Log Text: St George's Well, Minsteracres: Minsteracres had an open day today between 11am and 4pm, so we decided to drive up and see if we could find the well. I understood that it was located near to the chapel, but this was mistaken, as we found out on arrival.
Driving up the private road from the A68, we parked just past the cattle grid about 200m away from the main buildings, parked on the grass alongside the vegetable garden to our north, and walked back to The Shrubbery, a woodland with specimen and ornamental trees and two signposted walks.
With only a rough grid reference to guide us, but with the OS map in hand, it quickly became apparent that the well wasn’t in The Shrubbery, so we made our way back to the road and walked a little back towards the A68, heading north-north-east. In a small wood to our right hand side, the well became quickly apparent. I quickly recorded the waypoint on our GPS.
Whilst there was water in the pool, there was no water bubbling into the well pool. The well had a fairly large ditch running from it, so there appears to still be a fair flow of water from it at certain times.
Someone had recently been clearing away weeds and shrubs from the area. Scrapping away some of the leaves at the base of the steps into the well basin, water quickly flowed in to fill up the space where the leaves had been, although there was no evidence of flow.
The Hanging Stone (Haydon)
Trip No.128 Entry No.2 Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
The Hanging Stone (Haydon) submitted by Anne T on 7th May 2019. Standing just behind the stone looking north east. The stone is in a slight dip in the landscape and a (water?) channel runs almost from the base of the stone to the north east, where it joins another small stream. I wondered if at some point the stone marked the location of a spring, although this is not shown on the early OS maps. From here, it looks as if the top half of the stone is 'hooked'
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Log Text: The Hanging Stone, south of Haydon Bridge: We tried to find the Treacle Well (Traking Well) in Slaley, but despite an old footpath opposite the church being shown on the OS map, we couldn’t find our way through the houses to see it, so headed off through Hexham and off west on the B6305 to find The Hanging Stone.
This is marked on the OS map; Andrew found it on the 1860 map of the area, so it has been there a long time. There are no references to it on HE (although it is marked on their map), and only the briefest of mentions on Pastscape.
This stone wasn’t what I was expecting. I half thought that we’d see a flat stone marking the site of a gallows, not a standing stone! But it is very definitely a standing stone, and one that seems to have been here for some considerable time.
The road was very busy and the cars very fast. We did manage to bump up onto the soft verge, but for safety should have pulled up on the driveway up to the farm. The entrance to the field is at NY 88081 61695. After photographing the stone over the stone wall, I didn’t fancy trekking all the way up to the farm house in the distance, so took a chance and let myself into the field.
The stone is located in a dip, below current ground level, and has stones packed around its base. To its north east a rounded channel runs off to join a stream or modern field drain, as if the stone marked the start of a spring at some point.