Finding the Site of The Holy Well..
The first clue to the site of the Holy Well was a spring shown to have been present in the Glen on an 1884 OS map;
This led the Friends to a location close to the east bank of the stream that traverses the Glen. This location also happened to be  the only place in the whole of the woodlands where the background to the north closely matches the background on the photograph taken of the Holy Well in 1914 by Sabine’s grandson, also named Sabine.
Finally Rob and Beverley Stemson identified a pile of broken concrete and, close by, a section of glazed piping jutting out from the bank of a small watercourse. Jane Marchand, archaeologist to the Dartmoor National Park, suggested excavating along the course of the pipe to see where it led. So it was that in the autumn of 2007, Brian Wilkinson followed the glazed pipe for approximately 5’ at a depth of about 2’. At this point the pipe abruptly turned upwards and opened in the centre of what appeared to be the brick foundation of an overflow basin. Excavating back from the overflow uncovered a 4’3 by 5’ concrete plinth with marks indicating where the stonework of the well had once been embedded. In the centre of the plinth Brian found a slate lined basin the dimensions of which are 2’6 by 2’9 and 2’5 deep. Sadly the only artefact recovered from the well was a 1920s penny. It can be assumed that whatever offerings might at one time have been placed in the well were removed in 1928 along with the stone superstructure.
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Beverley Stemson pointing to the
remains of the concrete capping of the
well. |
Glazed pipe that lead to the remains of
the well. |
Concrete plinth and slate lined basin. |
The Friends were aware that in 1876 Sabine had created a reservoir to the north of the Glen, near Down House, and had laid iron pipes from the reservoir to supply Lew House with clean water. A complicating factor was that although the iron piping had carefully missed the well, the alcathene pipes laid some 30 years ago to replace the iron pipes, had been driven straight through it, damaging the basin and generally disturbing the surrounding area including the concrete cap place over the well when the stonework was removed. Dealing with the modern pipe was an extra challenge for the Friends, but in the autumn of 2010 with the invaluable and generous assistance of local builder, Tony Worth, and his team, the section of pipe work passing through the well was finally by-passed leaving the well ready for restoration. We have no idea what the well looked like after it was restored in 1830 by the Rev. Caddy Thomas but it was quite possibly a simple structure made of local stone and slate like some other Hoy wells dating from this period
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