Our Lady's Well, Hempsted

Last updated

Our Lady's Well
Our Lady's Well, Hempsted.jpg
TypeHoly Well
LocationHempsted, Gloucester
Coordinates 51°51′15″N2°16′15″W / 51.854185°N 2.270776°W / 51.854185; -2.270776 Coordinates: 51°51′15″N2°16′15″W / 51.854185°N 2.270776°W / 51.854185; -2.270776
Built14th century
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated10 January 1955
Reference no.472460

Our Lady's Well (also known as Saint Anne's Well) is a holy well house in Hempsted, Gloucester. It was designated as a Grade I listed building in January 1955. [1]

Holy well a spring or other small body of water revered either in a Pagan or Christian context, often both

A holy well or sacred spring is a well or spring or other small body of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both. The term holy well is commonly employed to refer to any water source of limited size, which has some significance in the folklore of the area where it is located, whether in the form of a particular name, an associated legend, the attribution of healing qualities to the water through the numinous presence of its guardian spirit or Christian saint, or a ceremony or ritual centred on the well site. In Christian legend, the water is often said to have been made to flow by the action of a saint, a familiar theme especially in the hagiography of Celtic saints.

Hempsted suburban village in Gloucester

Hempsted is a suburban village and part of the City of Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England.

Contents

History

The well house was built in the 14th century for the Manor of Hempsted, which was held by Llanthony Secunda. [1] [2] The well house is a tall structure built from Limestone blocks with an arched opening at the front. Water issues from the front into a large stone trough. [3] The rectangular water trough was added in the 18th or 19th century, and would have provided water for livestock. On the back of the well is a stone sculpture showing Saint Anne standing between her daughter, the virgin Mary, and an Angel. [4] It has been used as a baptistery, [5] and formerly was considered to have medicinal properties. [6] In the past it has been a place for pilgrimage, with countless pilgrims being recorded as coming to the site to seek cures. Pilgrimage was revived in 1989 for several years but has now ceased. The well is now dry. Ancient earthworks exists just to the east of the field containing the well. [3]

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.

Saint Anne mother of Virgin Mary in Christian and Islamic traditions; unnamed in the New Testament or Quran

According to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned, but not named, in the Quran.

Mary, mother of Jesus Mother of Jesus, according to the Christian New Testament

Mary was a first-century BC Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth, and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Qur'an.

The back of the Well showing the stone sculpture of Saint Anne Our Lady's Well, Hempsted (4).jpg
The back of the Well showing the stone sculpture of Saint Anne

Architecture

The well house is built of limestone ashlar blocks with a gabled roof of dressed limestone slabs. It is a small square building with an entrance on the west-side, which used to be closed by an iron door. There is a rectangular water trough, also on the west side extending to the north, which is made of dressed stone kerb walls. The north and south walls are plain, but in the gable of the east wall is a worn sculpted structure of three figures. Inside there is a single square chamber with a water inlet at low level. [1] [3]

Ashlar Finely dressed stone and associated masonry

Ashlar is finely dressed stone, either an individual stone that was worked until squared or the structure built from it. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, or less frequently trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect.

Related Research Articles

Basilica Building used as a place of Christian worship

The Latin word basilica has three distinct applications in modern English.

Walsingham two conjoined villages — Little Walsingham and Great Walsingham — in Norfolk, England

Walsingham is a village in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of the Virgin Mary. It also contains the ruins of two medieval monastic houses.

Iseo, Lombardy Comune in Lombardy, Italy

Iseo is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, on the south shore of Lake Iseo. It is bounded by the communes of Provaglio d'Iseo, Sulzano, Polaveno and Paratico.

Chipiona Municipality in Andalusia, Spain

Chipiona is a town and municipality located on the Atlantic coast in the province of Cádiz, Spain. According to the 2012 census, the city has a population of 18,849 inhabitants, but this amount increases greatly during the summer holiday period. The town covers an area of 33 km². Being in the lower valley of the River Guadalquivir it is very flat with a maximum terrestrial height of 4 metres. It is bordered on the north-west by Sanlúcar de Barrameda and on the south-east by the port of Rota.

Ħaġar Qim Megalith

Ħaġar Qim is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as "unique architectural masterpieces." In 1992 UNESCO recognized Ħaġar Qim and four other Maltese megalithic structures as World Heritage Sites. V. Gordon Childe, Professor of Prehistoric European Archeology and director of the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London from 1946-1957 visited Ħaġar Qim. He wrote, "I have been visiting the prehistoric ruins all round the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Greece and Switzerland, but I have nowhere seen a place as old as this one."

Fermo Comune in Marche, Italy

Fermo[ˈfermo]listen (help·info) is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.

Chittlehampton village in the United Kingdom

Chittlehampton is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Swimbridge, Filleigh, South Molton, Satterleigh and Warkleigh, High Bickington, Atherington, and Bishop's Tawton. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 820. There is an electoral ward of the same name. In the 2011 census this ward had a population of 2,255.

Pyramid of Senusret I smooth-sided pyramid

The Pyramid of Senusret I is an Egyptian pyramid built to be the burial place of the Pharaoh Senusret I. The pyramid was built during the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt at el-Lisht, near the pyramid of his father, Amenemhat I. Its ancient name was Senusret Petei Tawi.

Struell Wells

Struell Wells are a set of four holy wells in the townland of Struell, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. The wells date from before the time of Saint Patrick, and even today are used for people seeking cures. On Mid-Summer Eve and the Friday before Lammas, hundreds of pilgrims used to visit Struell. The earliest written reference to the wells is in 1306, but none of the surviving buildings is earlier than about 1600. Pilgrimages to the site are well documented from the 16th century to the 19th century. The site is managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Penrhys village in United Kingdom

Penrhys is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, situated on a hillside overlooking both valleys of Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach. It is situated around 1,100 ft above sea level and is a district of Tylorstown. Until the late 16th century, Penrhys was one of the holiest sites for Christian pilgrims in Wales.

Temple Cronan

Temple Cronan is a ruined medieval oratory or chapel built near a holy well in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. The current building apparently dates from the 12th and 15th centuries, although it may partly incorporate earlier buildings or some of the masonry thereof. It may have been the site of an early Christian monastery. Temple Cronan is located in the civil parish of Carran, eight miles from Corofin and about sixteen miles from Ennis.

Loughinisland Churches

The Loughinisland Churches are the remains of three ruined churches in Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland, dating from the 13th to the 17th centuries. They are situated in Tievenadarragh townland, in a large graveyard on an island in Loughinisland Lake, now reached by a causeway. The churches are state-care historic monuments at grid ref: J4234 4537.

Stonetown, County Louth Town in Leinster, Ireland

Stonetown is a small rural community in the parish of Louth 10 kilometres from Dundalk, County Louth, and 11 kilometres from Carrickmacross, County Monaghan. The community consists of a small chapel, a primary school, a football field and a community centre.

Cuetlajuchitlán

Cuetlajuchitlán is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located 3 kilometers southeast of Paso Morelos, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Guerrero.

St Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester Grade I listed church in the United Kingdom

St Mary de Lode Church is a Church of England church immediately outside the grounds of Gloucester Cathedral. It is believed by some to be on the site of the first Christian church in Britain. The church is in the Diocese of Gloucester and Grade I listed by English Heritage. It has also been known as St. Mary Before the Gate of St. Peter, St. Mary Broad Gate and St. Mary De Port.

Lady's Well or Our Lady's Well is a common name in the United Kingdom and Ireland for a holy well, usually dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Kings Walk Shopping Centre

Kings Walk Shopping Centre is a single-storey indoor shopping centre in Gloucester, England. Built between 1969 and 1972, it is part of the Kings Quarter development that includes an outdoor pedestrianised area.

St Margarets Well, Edinburgh architectural structure in City of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

St Margaret's Well (NT271737) is a Category B listed holy well that was relocated to Holyrood Park off Queen's Drive, Edinburgh from Restalrig in 1860. It is one of seven wells located in the park.

St Roberts Cave and Chapel of the Holy Cross

The early 13th century St Robert's Cave and Chapel of the Holy Cross also known with variants such as St Robert's Chapel and Chapel of the Holy Rood are located on Abbey Road beside the River Nidd in its gorge at Knaresborough. The cave is a rare example of a medieval hermitage, cut out of the magnesian limestone river gorge with a domestic area externally and the chapel of the Holy Cross which originally housed the saint's grave. For consistency the term 'cave' will be used throughout.

Tanners Hall Historic structure in Gloucester, England

Tanners Hall was a 13th century town house and is now a ruin located on Gouda Way in Gloucester. It is the oldest non-religious building and only surviving medieval domestic stone house in the city. It became a Grade II listed building on 29 July 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Our Ladys Well (Within Field Aprroximately [sic] 350 Metres West of Road". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  2. ↑ "Hempsted". British History. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Hunt, Lawrence. "Some Ancient Wells, Springs and Holy Wells of the Cotswolds". insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Torode, Brian (19 June 2014). "Holy Wells of Gloucestershire". btsarnia. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  5. ↑ "SUB57 Land at Newark FarmSite Historic Environment Assessmentsfor Strategic Assessment of Land Availability (SALA" (PDF). Gloucester City Council. January 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  6. ↑ "The Holy and Ancient Wells and Springs of Gloucester – Our Lady's Well, Hempsted". insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.