Holy wells in Exeter

Given the shortage of candidates I decided to investigate the well dedicated to Exeter’s greatest saint and martyr Saint Sidwell whose effigy can be seen in the street named after her.

Above my favourite pew in the south aisle of Holy Trinity, Exmouth is a splendid stained glass window of Sidwell carrying a scythe. Legend is that she was a chaste and virtuous Saxon convert to Christianity who took food to workers in the fields outside the city walls. Her stepmother, jealous of her beauty – and her inheritance – hired a couple of corn reapers to scythe off her head and where it fell a spring emerged. In my stained glass window in the bottom right hand corner you will see a circular stone well complete with bucket.

Maps since the first in 1226 confirm its location at the corner at Well Street and York Road which was the presumed site of her martyrdom The structure of the well changed over time and in the 16thc. it had a castellated well house. A 19thc. resident remembered a St. Sidwell’s Well – “sometimes called ‘the Beehive Well’ in the form of a little circular hut of red Heavitree stone about 8 foot high by 12 foot circumference”.

By then St. Sidwell’s Well had been in decline for centuries. Disconnected from the cathedral system in 1347 at about the time the underground passages were dug to provide fresh water from field springs, by 1880 it was deemed ‘teeming with impurities and closed’.

Where is it now?

One theory we can discount is that it is hidden in the brambles on the up line embankment at St. James station. There is indeed a well house there but this was the Cathedral Well relocated when the railway came to the city in 1857.

Following extensive archaeological research in 2017 we can say with certainty that St. Sidwell’s Well is where both legend and history tell us. Her well lies below the checkerboard floor of 3 Well Street, now a lovely little coffee shop and eatery called Pura Vida which itself is a suitable tribute. Sealed off it may be so my search has not yielded up a new place of pilgrimage. But when I next visit I will religiously raise a coffee cup to St. Sidwell whose name is woven into Exeter’s heritage.

Following my excursion round East Devon I turned my attention to our cathedral city where there was a Christian presence as early as the 5th c. and where you might expect to find Holy Wells in abundance.

Given the shortage of candidates I decided to investigate the well dedicated to Exeter’s greatest saint and martyr Saint Sidwell whose effigy can be seen in the street named after her.

Above my favourite pew in the south aisle of Holy Trinity, Exmouth is a splendid stained glass window of Sidwell carrying a scythe. Legend is that she was a chaste and virtuous Saxon convert to Christianity who took food to workers in the fields outside the city walls. Her stepmother, jealous of her beauty – and her inheritance – hired a couple of corn reapers to scythe off her head and where it fell a spring emerged. In my stained glass window in the bottom right hand corner you will see a circular stone well complete with bucket.

Maps since the first in 1226 confirm its location at the corner at Well Street and York Road which was the presumed site of her martyrdom The structure of the well changed over time and in the 16thc. it had a castellated well house. A 19thc. resident remembered a St. Sidwell’s Well – “sometimes called ‘the Beehive Well’ in the form of a little circular hut of red Heavitree stone about 8 foot high by 12 foot circumference”.

By then St. Sidwell’s Well had been in decline for centuries. Disconnected from the cathedral system in 1347 at about the time the underground passages were dug to provide fresh water from field springs, by 1880 it was deemed ‘teeming with impurities and closed’.

Where is it now?

One theory we can discount is that it is hidden in the brambles on the up line embankment at St. James station. There is indeed a well house there but this was the Cathedral Well relocated when the railway came to the city in 1857.

Following extensive archaeological research in 2017 we can say with certainty that St. Sidwell’s Well is where both legend and history tell us. Her well lies below the checkerboard floor of 3 Well Street, now a lovely little coffee shop and eatery called Pura Vida which itself is a suitable tribute. Sealed off it may be so my search has not yielded up a new place of pilgrimage. But when I next visit I will religiously raise a coffee cup to St. Sidwell whose name is woven into Exeter’s heritage.