St. Plegmund's well lies about to the west of

St Peter's Church, Plemstall St Peter's Church, Plemstall stands in an isolated position at the end of a country lane near the village of Mickle Trafford, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed buildin ...

near the village of

Mickle Trafford Mickle Trafford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Mickle Trafford and District, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It includes the area known as Plemst ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England (). It is named after

Plegmund Plegmund (or Plegemund; died 2 August either 914 or 923) was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. He may have been a hermit before he became archbishop in 890. As archbishop, he reorganised the Diocese of Winchester, creating four new ...

, who later became

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, and who is believed to have lived as a hermit nearby. The well is situated on the edge of a low cliff to the east of which is one of the channels of the

River Gowy The River Gowy is a river in Cheshire, England, a tributary of the River Mersey. It rises in western Cheshire in the hills near Peckforton Castle, very close to the source of the River Weaver. While the Weaver flows south initially, the Gowy f ...

. It is one of two

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualities, through the numinous presence of its gua ...

s in west Cheshire. An inscribed

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

curb was added in 1907 which was dedicated by the Venerable E. Barber, Archdeacon of Chester, on 11 November 1907. The earliest documentary evidence of the well is in a

quitclaim Generally, a quitclaim is a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaims renounces or relinquishes a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in land. Originally a c ...

dated 1301. A survey of the well was carried out in 1995 which found that it is a square stone-lined pit with two large slabs on either side and two steps down from the southern side beside the road. In the bottom of the well is a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

pipe which has been inserted at a later date. At the time of the survey there was water present up to the level of the first step. The cover slabs show some signs of damage but there was no sign of the curbs added in 1907. It is said to have been used for baptisms up to the 20th century. In the 1990s, it was noticed that the hawthorn tree overhanging the well was dressed periodically and during the later 1990s, archaeologists from Chester City Council led local children on a well dressing walk on St Plegmund's feast day (2 August). This continued until 2000, when a more formal annual well dressing event was revived. The well is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plegmund Holy wells in England Religious places Springs of England Scheduled monuments in Cheshire

See also

References