Return to St Catherine's holy well

St Catherine's Well, Eskdale

THE restoration of St Catherine's holy well in Eskdale has encouraged me to revisit the various notes on this delightful spot in Cumbria. Much of the work on the well was done in the early 20th century by Eskdale archaeologist Mary Fair. She re-found the well and arranged for it to be 'dug up' and investigated. Curiously by 1942 it had all been forgotten and people were again asking where the well was. A letter (written in 1942) in Whitehaven Archive & Local Studies Centre from Mary said:

"The well is known not only by tradition but by continuity of actual knowledge. Aaron Marshall regularly got water from it and up to about 1870 it was regularly cleared out and kept in running order. After that occasionally cleared to keep the site known."

She tells how she excavated the site in the late 1920s...

"We went under the great blocks of stone forming the basin of the well firmly then set in clay and there were as well structural remains in the form of a solidly constructed framework of mainly oak, set in clay with the boulders forming the basin upon it. There were rude steps leading down to the basin at one side and at one time there had been a roughly built stone conduit in the direction of the church."

Mary speculated in 1927 that the hill near to the well may have housed a home for a hermit. She bases this, rather unconvincingly on the two summits being called Cross Howe and Harmot Howe. She adds: "(They were) also spelt  Harmitt and Harmoth, associated with a place called Arment House, all of which words may indicate that a hermit may have once occupied a small cell at the place." As far as I can tell this is the origin of the 'legend' that a hermit did live there - a story now widely repeated on the net and in folklore books.

There is more evidence for the 'Catty fair' held in a field beside St Catherine's Church. Its first written record is in the church accounts for 1766. The fair was held close to the saint's day of November 25th. According to notes at the archives office, the fair allowed for the sale of corn, drapery, woollen yarn, sheep and pigs.

The restoration of the well in 2014

The fair is again mentioned in a government report of 1889 and around 1900, the vicar of Eskdale Rev W Sykes, wrote "Kitty Fair and Bellhill bonfires remain in memory". Historian Park in his classic work on Gosforth (1926) says the fair was Dodgskin Fair but he gives no source for this.

In the Whitehaven archives there is an undated letter (it looks as if it was written in the early 20th century) from CA Calverly:

"Old Mr Porter of Low Holme told me as a child he remembered the fair held at the church. They had a service first. Catty Fair it was called and gingerbread were made in the shape of a human being, arms outstretched, I suppose to represent St Catherine  on the wheel."

The fair was held in the field between the church and Parson's Passage (what was previously a gated path - Belle Hill Gate; the name - according to a note at the archives - originating from the fact the church bells were hung in a tree beside the gate).

There also appears to have been an annual sports event held beside the church but this died out in 1924.