Here's a thing for you to ponder!
I'm reaching the last stages of my documentary research on wells in
Buckinghamshire and they produce an interesting conundrum. Taking named
and notable wells as a whole the county has as high a number per mile as
anywhere else, over 200 (I haven't totted them up in a while). But the
number of Christianised wells is low, and the total dedicated to saints
is piffling. The definite dedications are:
BIERTON, St Osyth
BRILL, St Werburgh
BUCKINGHAM, St Rumwald
CHENIES, St Mary
NEWTON LONGVILLE, St John
NORTH CRAWLEY, St Firmin
NORTH MARSTON, Sir John Schorne
And more dubious ones include:
CHALVEY, Queen Anne's (St Anne?)
ELLESBOROUGH, Holewell (St Edburga's?)
FARNHAM ROYAL, Aaron Well (Biblical figure rather than saint)
GREAT BRICKHILL, Maiden Well (beside chapel of SS Mary & John Baptist)
GREAT BRICKHILL, Lady Hole (possibly a well)
PADBURY, Edwardes Well (no reason why this should be a saint's name)
TAPLOW, Bapsey Pond (used by St Birinus for baptisms)
Dedications coined by antiquarians are:
BURNHAM, Britwell/St Brigid's
EAST CLAYDON, Botyl/St Botulph's
This is a pretty dismal haul, and an odd one too. In the surrounding
counties, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Northants have quite respectable
proportions of saints' wells (not enough is yet known about Herts), and
the usual predominance of sites dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Why only
one in Bucks? Why so many oddball local saints rather than the biggies?
Did the apparently early strength of Nonconformity in Bucks mean that
the saints' names dropped off wells sooner here than round about? Does
*anyone* have any ideas?
--
James Rattue
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|