St Winifred'S Well

St Winifred's Well is a holy well and well house, probably dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, built on an earlier site with later additions and alterations. The well itself is constructed of regularly coursed dressed sandstone, while the associated cottage is timber framed with painted brick infill and a slate roof. The cottage is a single-storey, T-shaped building with a gable projecting over the well. The timber framing features massive, close-set vertical posts with V-struts from collar to gable. A boarded-over window is located to the left of the central boarded door on the north side, while an integral yellow brick end stack is situated to the right, with an original shaped window-head largely obscured by a wooden lean-to.

The well comprises an inner chamber over the spring and is accessed through a narrow entrance to the right. This chamber has a round-headed outer arch over a low stone wall, incorporating a moulded rectangular niche above, leading to a rectangular stone basin, with a flight of four steps on each side. Water drains from the basin through a hole in the wall into a square basin below, also accessed by steps. The water then drains through a hole at its bottom end into the stream below.

Interior inspection was not possible during re-survey in July 1985, but it is reported to contain an arch-braced collar beam roof in three bays, with cusped struts forming quatrefoils and cusped wind braces. The well commemorates the miracle of a spring appearing where the body of the 7th-century Saint Winifred rested during her journey from Holywell to Shrewsbury. The structure was likely built at the expense of Margaret, Countess of Beaufort, wife of Henry VII, who also rebuilt the larger pilgrimage centre at Holywell. A datestone, reportedly inscribed with the year 1635, was not visible when re-surveyed and there is no evidence to support the earlier suggestion that the structure above the well was once a chapel.