After the storm...

St Cuthbert's holy well is marked by the tree

THE dreadful storms and rain of the last few weeks have curtailed any idea of walking in the Lake District but today was the first non-rain day for some time. It was a chance to explore Watergates Lonning near Waverbridge in Cumbria. The lonning is home to St Cuthbert's holy well (and at one time St Cuthbert's stone) so I was keen to discover in what form it still existed. Most 'wells' are springs rather than the ornamental wells associated with Jack and Jill. They were important as sources of fresh water but a number also became associated with healing powers or other miraculous qualities. Some, like this one, are associated with a particular saint. Waverbridge is close to the end of the world. It's about as far north west as you can get without ending up in the Solway or Scotland! And it's remoteness is only equalled by its bleakness. This was a fresh and invigorating walk - and on harsher winter days I can imagine the breezes coming off the Solway would bite deep. It was also a very wet walk with the rain of the last few days lying deep on the ground. It's a lonning well used by the farmer to access his fields so was nicely ploughed up. But for all this, the openness and starkness of the lonning made it a breath of deep fresh air after the weeks of enforced staying indoors. This would definitely be a walk to do to cure a hangover! As to the well itself there was little sign. The spring is marked on the OS map (but only called a spring, not St Cuthbert's well) and the farmer seems to be in the middle of reworking it, probably to avoid too much flooding in the field and lonning. A plastic pipe feeds the spring water from the field into a ditch. It's all a far cry from its hey-day in the 18th century as described by historian William Hutchinson (and retold in the Northern Antiquarian). The future does not bode well for St Cuthbert's holy well.