Not quite a Well . . .

. . . but nearly.
 
On the extra day of February, this was going to be a last Holy Well finding. As time was limited, we set off for the one that was the closest to home - in the nearby village of Milburn. We were supposed to be finding Keld Well, dedicated to St Cuthbert because the story is that his body was rested here in 876 when monks from Lindisfarne were fleeing from Viking invaders and carried with them the holy relics of their saint. There is reference to this Well as being in Saxon times a popular place of pilgrimage with some miraculous cures taking place. That was obviously before the fence!

One of my books said that this spring in a stream was 'so well fenced off as not to be accessible'. This did not put us off and we set out across a field towards a copse where the Well was supposed to be. And what did we find - it was so well fenced off as not to be accessible!! It was not just the Well that was fenced off, but the whole copse through which the Keldwell stream flows, so even though we walked all the way round there was no way we could get close enough to find the spring. (It was a pretty severe fence with barbed wire along the top.)
 
With time pressing, we gave up and went to St Cuthbert's Church close by. This is a lovely little church, quite isolated in the middle of farmland, but beautifully kept. It is believed that the present Norman church was re-established on an earlier site, so it is likely that the story about St Cuthbert and the Well led to its being founded in this spot.
   
So a bit of a failure and I wasn't even sure that I ought to be tagging for the International Holy Wells Month, but we were definitely in the right place and if people will put up these fences . . . 


And if you think it is cold here, look where our daughter is!!