Holy Wells and Clootie Trees
Jul. 6th, 2023 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottycI begin my research by going looking into Holy Wells and Clootie Trees.
This is a nice explanation of holy wells:
"Holy Wells like Sancreed would originally have been a source of fresh water for people, and came to be venerated for the ‘genus loci’ or spirit of the place who was thought to dwell there. Later, under Christianity, they often became dedicated to saints, and continued to be be visited as sacred and healing places."
If a Clootie tree is located next to the well then the well can also be rereferred to as a Clootie Well". Many sources agree on the practice of cutting a piece of clothing closest to a person's ailment or affliction, dipping it in the holy well and then tying the cloth to the tree. As the cloth started rotting away, so too would the aliment.
I will focus on the Chapel Uny Well in Sancreed, Cornwall as I have a personal connection to it. In 2015 I was able to journey to Cornwall to explore my Cornish heritage and hoped to find surviving evidence, particularly grave stones of my Cornish ancestors. Any grave stones were long gone* but in many churches, baptismal fonts remained from the Norman period, providing a direct connection. Unfortunately, I was disappointed on this aspect in Sancreed as I was there on a weekday and the church was closed and wasn't able to stay until the next Sunday. There was no evidence of ancestral grave markers and I was not able to go in and view the baptismal font. Despite that, I view the holy well at Sancreed to be an equivalent connection despite (of course) there being no official record of any ancestor being dipped in the well and drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction (see below).
I found a book from 1894, Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall by M. and L. Quiller-Couch which referenced even earlier works on the Holy Well in Sancreed, Cornwall. Highlights are mine.
"This famous well is in the parish of Sancreed, not far from the Land's End. The water wells forth, but the building which once covered it is demolished. Dr. Borlase says (Borlase, Nat. Hist. of Cornwall, p. 31. (Date A.D. 1757)) that "as a witness of its having done remarkable cures, it has a chapel adjoining to it, dedicated to St. Eunius; the ruins of which, consisting of much carved stone, bespeak it to have been formerly of no little note. The water has the reputation of drying humors as well as healing wounds.'
He added that, 'the common people (of this as well of other countries) will not be content to attribute the benefit they receive to ordinary means; there must be something marvelous in all their cures. I happened, luckily, to be at this well upon the last day of the year, on which, according to vulgar opinion, it exerts its principal and most salutary powers. Two women were here who came from a neighboring parish, and were busily employed in bathing a child. They both assured me that people who had a mind to receive any benefit from St. Euny's well, must come and wash upon the first three Wednesdays in May. But to leave folly to its own delusion, it certainly very gracious in Providence to distribute a remedy for so many disorders in a quality so universally found as cold is in every unmixed well water.
Dr. Paris describes it as it was some sixty years ago (1830's). The ruins of a chapel or baptistery were observable near, and the water of the well was then supposed to possess many miraculous virtues, especially in infantile mesenteric disease. They were dipped on the three first Wednesdays in May, and drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction (Guide to Mount's Bay, etc., pg. 82.)
This well, according to this distinguished physician and chemist, like Madron, does not contain any mineral impregnations, but must derive its force and virtue from the tonic effects of cold, and from the firm faith of the devotees. The credulous still go here to divine the future in the appearance of the bubbles which a pin or pebble sends up.
'Two of three carved stones are all that remain of the old structures; and at the stated times when the well is sought for divination and cure, a bath is formed by impounding the water of turves cut from the surrounding moor. The country people know it as the Giant's Well'" (Halliwell's Rambles in Western Cornwall, p. 191).
I find the highlighted text above interesting:
1 - Dipped on the 3 first Wednesdays (4th day of the week) of May (5th month; after Beltane?).
2 - Child drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction.
3 - Dr. Borlase there on the last day of the year (supposedly when the pools effects were most powerful) but only two women were there. Off topic but maybe very cold that day and probably drew a crowd on that date, even in an age of enhancement. Note Borlase's attitude towards these beliefs which is an example of disenchantment . When reading about this well I discovered there was a period in which it was forgotten about but it has been rediscovered and the adjoining clootie tree is still in use (circa 2015, mostly colored ribbons, one or two small colored balloons, a couple of white strips of cloth and a line of what seemed to be small Nepalese or Tibetian prayer flags).
* For those that may want to journey back to Great Britain and find ancestral gravestones I found that the earliest gravestones with legible writing were from the late 18th century and any gravestones remaining were probably of very important / rich people of that parish. Over the years many gravestones were moved off to the side of the cemetery walls to make way for new burials. Finally, I came across a display in one church of a small bricked sized marker with initials. I forgot the year the plaque said the marker was from but I think 16th or 17th century and any records on who the person belonging to the initials were lost long ago.
In the U.S., I found a family graveyard from the 19th Century. Possibly there were ancestors buried there from the late 18th Century but there would be no way to tell. The larger grave stones with inscriptions and from the more recent generations were all for the women and a child. Next to them were small pointed rocks serving as markers, most probably for the men or for any family member when the cost of engraved stones were too much.
REFERENCES
Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall M. and L. Quiller-Couch. London Chas. J. Clark Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. 1894.
Sancreed Well
https://cornishancientsites.com/ancient-sites/sancreed-well/
Origins of Sancreed Church
https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2408/page/73215/view/
This is a nice explanation of holy wells:
"Holy Wells like Sancreed would originally have been a source of fresh water for people, and came to be venerated for the ‘genus loci’ or spirit of the place who was thought to dwell there. Later, under Christianity, they often became dedicated to saints, and continued to be be visited as sacred and healing places."
If a Clootie tree is located next to the well then the well can also be rereferred to as a Clootie Well". Many sources agree on the practice of cutting a piece of clothing closest to a person's ailment or affliction, dipping it in the holy well and then tying the cloth to the tree. As the cloth started rotting away, so too would the aliment.
I will focus on the Chapel Uny Well in Sancreed, Cornwall as I have a personal connection to it. In 2015 I was able to journey to Cornwall to explore my Cornish heritage and hoped to find surviving evidence, particularly grave stones of my Cornish ancestors. Any grave stones were long gone* but in many churches, baptismal fonts remained from the Norman period, providing a direct connection. Unfortunately, I was disappointed on this aspect in Sancreed as I was there on a weekday and the church was closed and wasn't able to stay until the next Sunday. There was no evidence of ancestral grave markers and I was not able to go in and view the baptismal font. Despite that, I view the holy well at Sancreed to be an equivalent connection despite (of course) there being no official record of any ancestor being dipped in the well and drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction (see below).
I found a book from 1894, Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall by M. and L. Quiller-Couch which referenced even earlier works on the Holy Well in Sancreed, Cornwall. Highlights are mine.
"This famous well is in the parish of Sancreed, not far from the Land's End. The water wells forth, but the building which once covered it is demolished. Dr. Borlase says (Borlase, Nat. Hist. of Cornwall, p. 31. (Date A.D. 1757)) that "as a witness of its having done remarkable cures, it has a chapel adjoining to it, dedicated to St. Eunius; the ruins of which, consisting of much carved stone, bespeak it to have been formerly of no little note. The water has the reputation of drying humors as well as healing wounds.'
He added that, 'the common people (of this as well of other countries) will not be content to attribute the benefit they receive to ordinary means; there must be something marvelous in all their cures. I happened, luckily, to be at this well upon the last day of the year, on which, according to vulgar opinion, it exerts its principal and most salutary powers. Two women were here who came from a neighboring parish, and were busily employed in bathing a child. They both assured me that people who had a mind to receive any benefit from St. Euny's well, must come and wash upon the first three Wednesdays in May. But to leave folly to its own delusion, it certainly very gracious in Providence to distribute a remedy for so many disorders in a quality so universally found as cold is in every unmixed well water.
Dr. Paris describes it as it was some sixty years ago (1830's). The ruins of a chapel or baptistery were observable near, and the water of the well was then supposed to possess many miraculous virtues, especially in infantile mesenteric disease. They were dipped on the three first Wednesdays in May, and drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction (Guide to Mount's Bay, etc., pg. 82.)
This well, according to this distinguished physician and chemist, like Madron, does not contain any mineral impregnations, but must derive its force and virtue from the tonic effects of cold, and from the firm faith of the devotees. The credulous still go here to divine the future in the appearance of the bubbles which a pin or pebble sends up.
'Two of three carved stones are all that remain of the old structures; and at the stated times when the well is sought for divination and cure, a bath is formed by impounding the water of turves cut from the surrounding moor. The country people know it as the Giant's Well'" (Halliwell's Rambles in Western Cornwall, p. 191).
I find the highlighted text above interesting:
1 - Dipped on the 3 first Wednesdays (4th day of the week) of May (5th month; after Beltane?).
2 - Child drawn through the pool three times against the sun and three times on the surrounding grass in the same direction.
3 - Dr. Borlase there on the last day of the year (supposedly when the pools effects were most powerful) but only two women were there. Off topic but maybe very cold that day and probably drew a crowd on that date, even in an age of enhancement. Note Borlase's attitude towards these beliefs which is an example of disenchantment . When reading about this well I discovered there was a period in which it was forgotten about but it has been rediscovered and the adjoining clootie tree is still in use (circa 2015, mostly colored ribbons, one or two small colored balloons, a couple of white strips of cloth and a line of what seemed to be small Nepalese or Tibetian prayer flags).
* For those that may want to journey back to Great Britain and find ancestral gravestones I found that the earliest gravestones with legible writing were from the late 18th century and any gravestones remaining were probably of very important / rich people of that parish. Over the years many gravestones were moved off to the side of the cemetery walls to make way for new burials. Finally, I came across a display in one church of a small bricked sized marker with initials. I forgot the year the plaque said the marker was from but I think 16th or 17th century and any records on who the person belonging to the initials were lost long ago.
In the U.S., I found a family graveyard from the 19th Century. Possibly there were ancestors buried there from the late 18th Century but there would be no way to tell. The larger grave stones with inscriptions and from the more recent generations were all for the women and a child. Next to them were small pointed rocks serving as markers, most probably for the men or for any family member when the cost of engraved stones were too much.
REFERENCES
Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall M. and L. Quiller-Couch. London Chas. J. Clark Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. 1894.
Sancreed Well
https://cornishancientsites.com/ancient-sites/sancreed-well/
Origins of Sancreed Church
https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2408/page/73215/view/
