The Lost Land of Lyonesse, or Lethowsow - Part 2

The Scillonian ferry regularly crosses the waters above the legendary Lyonesse.  If you wish to use my photo please attribute this blog!

[cont.] "...A small, but very ancient, oratory, "Chapel Idne," or the "Narrow Chapel," formerly stood in Sennen Cove. It is said to have been founded by one Lord of Goonhilly, who owned a portion of the Lyonesse, on the occasion of his escape from the flood. By this war of waters several large towns were destroyed, and an immense number of the inhabitants perished.


In the absence of full traditional evidence, it will not be uninteresting to gather together the fragmentary statements which exist in the writings of historians and others -
 
"The number of parish churches lost is so astonishingly great as to baffle the power of evidence, to preclude the possibility of conviction. I, therefore, take upon me to reduce the number from 140 to 40, -- to cut off what any dash of Worcester's pen might casually have created, the first figure."--Whitaker's Supplement to Polwhele's History of Cornwall.

The Saxon Chronicle says the Lionesse was destroyed on the 11th of November 1099.

"On the third of the Nones of November (1099) the sea overflowed the shore, destroying towns and drowning many persons and innumerable oxen and sheep."--The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, translated by Thomas Forester, A.M. Bohn, 1854.... [cont.]"

Hunt 1903

Map - Sennan cove

Saint Mary's Well, Glastonbury

"St. Mary's Well is situated in the crypt of the Chapel of our Lady, in a recess, and vaulted over; it runs northward under the priory. It is said to have been used for washing purposes."

Hope 1893

Map - Glastonbury

The Well of Saint Anne-in-the-Wood

Ruins of Keynsham Abbey - Rick Crowley [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsRick Crowley [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"This well is in St. Anne's Wood ; near it was a building, probably used as a guest-house, and also a chapel, which was formerly attached to Keynsham Abbey, a monk of this abbey generally residing on the spot. Pilgrimages were made to it, and on the well being cleared, in 1878, many coins and tokens, offerings of the pilgrims, were found. July 26 was the day on which the pilgrimages were usually made.

The water of this well was formerly considered good for affection of the eye. 

The chapel was dismantled, and the pilgrimages, against which Latimer once preached a sermon in Bristol, were suppressed in 1536."

Hope 1893

Map - Saint Annes
Map - Keynsham Abbey

Saint Leonard's Well, Mount Edgecumbe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/965429538/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_GB

"The chapel of this well is in the grounds of Mount Edgecumbe. It is a ruined cell, 6 feet by 41 feet. It had an arched roof, with a central rib, part of which remains; opposite the doorway is a niche. The water now supplies a cattle trough.--Ashford, 147."

Hope 1893

Map - Mount Edgecumbe

Saint Ruan's or Saint Rumon's Well, Grade

"The well is about a quarter of a mile from Grade Church, rudely built of granite. Its water is used for all baptisms in the church. St. Rumon is believed to have come as a missionary from Ireland in the ninth or tenth century, and to have dwelt in a wood near Grade Church and the Lizard Point, having a cell and chapel, and regardless of the wild beasts which then roamed there. His name excited such reverence, that his remains were removed to Tavistock Abbey."

Hope 1893

Map -Saint Ruan's Well

Map - Lizard Point

Map - Tavistock Abbey

Dozmare Pool - part 2

Dozmary Pool -   © Copyright Steve G and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

"...Occasionally, too, it is said this miserable monster is hunted by the devil round and about the tarn, when he flies to the Roche Rocks, some 15 miles distant, and, by thrusting his head in at the chapel window, finds a respite from his torments. Other versions of the legend place Tregeagle on the coast near Padstow, where he is condemned to make trusses of sand and ropes of sand to bind them; or at the mouth of the estuary at Helston, across which he was condemned to carry sacks of sand until the beach should be clean of the rocks. 

The story of Tregeagle, however, with his endless labour, has been connected in Cornwall with a real person, the dishonest steward of Lord Robartes at Lanhydrock (where a room in the house is still called Tregeagle's), who maltreated the tenants under his charge, and amassed money sufficient to purchase the estate of Trevorder, in St. Breock, where he distinguished himself as a harsh and arbitrary magistrate."

Hope 1893


Map - Dozmary Pool
Map - Padstow
Map - Helston Estuary
Map - Lanhydrock
Map - Saint Breock

Dupath Well, Callington

"Dupath Well is a pellucid spring, once the resort of pilgrims and still held in esteem. It overflows a trough, and entering the open archway of a small chapel, spreads itself over the floor and passes out below a window at the opposite end. The little chapel, 12 feet long by 11 ½ wide, is a complete specimen of the baptisteries anciently so common in Cornwall. It has a most venerable appearance, and is built of granite, which is gray and worn by age. The roof is constructed of enormously long blocks of granite, hung with fern, and supported in the interior by an arch, dividing the nave and chancel. The doorway faces west; at the east end is a square-headed window of two lights, and two openings in the sides. The building is crowned by an ornamental bell-cote. The well is famed for the combat between Sir Colam and Gotlieb for the love of a lady; Gotlieb was killed, and Sir Colam died of his wounds."

Hope 1893

Map - Dupath Well

Saint Cleer, Liskeard

"The well of St. Cleer, the baptistery or chapel by which it was enclosed, and an ancient cross about 9 feet high, form a group by the roadside 100 yards eastward below the church, north of Liskeard. The chapel was destroyed by fanatics in the Civil War, but appears to have been similar in size and construction to that which now stands by Dupath Well, near Callington. It was restored in 1864 as a memorial to the Rev. John Jope, sixty-seven years Vicar of St. Cleer. The well is said to have been once used as a boussening or ducking pool, for the cure of mad people. Attempts have from time to time been made to cart away some of the stones of the chapel, but mysterious power has always returned them at night. The entrance is under two low round arches, the roof covered with ivy and brushwood. The water flowing out of the well fills a pool or basin, supposed to have been used as a boussening pool for curing mad people. St. Clare was born about 1200, in Italy, and died 1252. She became the abbess of a monastery of Benedictine nuns, and was foundress of the order of the Poor Clares.--E. Ashworth, Esq."

Hope 1893

Map - St Cleer's Well
Map - Dupath Well

Basil's Well, St Cleather

"In the parish of St. Cleather, Cornwall, and on the granite sprinkled banks of the Innay, lie the ruins of a well chapel. The spring of water flows from under the altar, A, which is marked with four crosses. The chapel is known by the name of Basil's Well."

Hope 1893

Map - Basil's Well

Saint Austell - Menacuddle Well

"About half a mile from St. Austell there is an enclosed well of remarkably pure water, known as Menacuddle Well, i.e., maen-a-coedl, the hawk's stone; and also the remains of its little chapel or baptistry. The chapel is 11 feet long, 9 feet wide. There are north and south doorways, B B, 2 feet 9 inches wide, and 5 feet high, The spring rises on the east side, and the basin, A A, is divided by a stone bar. 

Its romantic situation moves us more than any idea of the virtue of the water. It is also a wishing well. It lies in a vale at the foot of Menacuddle Grove, surrounded with romantic scenery, and covered with an ancient Gothic chapel, overgrown with ivy. The virtues of these waters are very extraordinary, but the advantages to be derived from them are rather attributed to the sanctity of the fountain than to the natural excellence of its stream. Weak children have frequently been carried here to be bathed ; ulcers have also been washed in its sacred water, and people in season of sickness have been recommended by the neighbouring matrons to drink of this salubrious fluid. In most of these cases, instances may be procured of benefits received from the application, but the prevailing opinion is that the advantages enjoyed result rather from some mystical virtue attributed to the waters for ages past, than from the natural qualities. Within the memory of persons now living, this well was a place of general resort for the young and thoughtless. On approaching the margin, each visitor, if he hoped for good luck through life, was expected to throw a crooked pin into the water, and it was presumed that the other pins which had been deposited there by former devotees might be seen rising from their beds, to meet it before it reached the bottom, and though many have gazed with eager expectation, no one has yet been permitted to witness this extraordinary phenomenon."

Hope 1893

Map - Menacudle Well

Menacuddle Well 2004

  © Copyright Michael Murray and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Pelynt - Saint Nun's Well - part 2

"...Though the superstitious hinds had spared the well, time and storms of winter had been slowly ruining it. The oak which grew upon its roof had, by its roots, dislodged several stones of the arch, and, swaying about in the wind, had shaken down a large mass of masonry in the interior, and the greater part of the front. On its ruinous condition being made known to the Trelawny family (on whose property it is situated), they ordered the restoration, and the walls were replaced after the original plan. 

This well and a small chapel (the site of which is no longer to be traced, though still pointed out by the older tenantry) were dedicated, it is supposed, to St. Ninnie, or St. Nun, a female saint, who, according to William of Worcester, was the mother of St. David. The people of the neighbourhood knew the well by the names St. Ninnie's, St. Nun's, and Piskies' Well. It is probable that the latter is, after all, the older name, and that the guardianship of the spring was usurped at a later period by the saint whose name it occasionally bears. The water was doubtless used for sacramental purposes; yet its mystic properties, if they were ever supposed to be dispensed by the saint, have been again transferred, in the popular belief, to the Piskies.

A piskie and a pin at Penlynt - please attribute this website if you wish to use my drawing

In the basin of the well may be found a great number of pins, thrown in by those who have visited it out of curiosity, or to avail themselves of the virtues of its waters. A writer, anxious to know what meaning the peasantry attach to this strange custom, on asking a man at work near the spot, was told that it was done "to get the goodwill of the Piskies," who after the tribute of a pin not only ceased to mislead them, but rendered fortunate the operations of husbandry."

Hope 1893

 Map - Saint Nonna's Well, Penlynt

[There appear to be no copyleft images of the well now on the internet. If anyone has a photo I would love to be able to use it.]

Sancred: Sanit Euny's, Saint Eurinus', or Uny's Well - part 1

"St. Euny's Well, in the parish of Sancred, south-west of Madron, occupies a soil similar to the Madern Well. Its waters, and its various virtues, both real and imaginary, are similar. Contiguous are the ruins of an old chapel, among which are many stones curiously carved, which strongly indicate that there was a period when this place was in high estimation. Age and repute are the parents of veneration, and veneration, in process of time, frequently degenerates into superstition. Among the reputed excellencies of this fountain, it is believed to have the property of drying humours, and healing wounds and sores, of various descriptions. But it is only at particular seasons of the year that the tide of its virtues can be caught. The last day in the year is generally supposed to be more fortunate than any other, and at this time many resort thither, to catch the holy impregnation. There is no doubt that many cures have been wrought by this fountain ; but it is only superstition that will attach these effects to any magical efficacy. Not only by the water of this well, but by the water of others unknown to fame, many wounds, sores, disordered eyes, and other complaints, have been removed by their mere coldness and natural salubrity. Cold braces the nerves and muscles, and, by strengthening the glands, promotes secretion and circulation, the two grand ministers of health..." [cont.]

Hope 1893

Cornish Holy Wells - Part 1

"A CORRESPONDENT of the Gentleman's Magazine, writing on this interesting subject, says: "In Cornwall there are several wells which bear the name of some patron saint, who appears to have had a chapel consecrated to him or her on the spot. This appears by the name of Chapel Saint-attached by tradition to the spot. These chapels were most probably mere oratories; but in the parish of Maddern there is a well called Maddern Well, which is inclosed in a complete baptistery, the walls, seats, doorway, and altar of which still remain. The socket which received the base of the crucifix or pedestal of the saint's image is perfect. The foundations of the outer walls are apparent. The whole ruin is very picturesque, and I wonder that it is passed in so slight a manner by all Cornish historians, and particularly by Dr. Borlase, who speaks merely of the virtues superstitiously ascribed to the waters. This neglect in Borlase is the more to be wondered at, as the ruin is situated' in his native parish. I was struck with being informed that the superstitious of the neighbourhood attend on the first Thursday in May to consult this oracle by dropping pins, etc. Why on Thursday? May not this be some vestige of the day on which baptisteries were opened after their being kept shut and scaled during Lent, which was on Maundy Thursday ? My informant told me that Thursday was the particular day of the week, though some came on the second and third Thursday..." [to be cont.]

Hope 1893