St Urith's Well

St Urith's Well, Chittlehampton

This is a holy well, probably dating to the eighth century AD, known variously as St Urith's Well, Teara's Well, or Taddy Well. The structure survives mainly as a drystone-walled construction now situated below a modern concrete slab, with access provided by a metal manhole cover.

A lintel from the original well house has been incorporated into an adjacent modern stone wall. Close to this lintel stands a concrete-lined recess, its base formed by a large stone slab into which two shallow basins or stoups have been cut. This slab represents the focus of the original medieval holy well, where pilgrims would have collected small quantities of water for religious and healing purposes.

According to legend, St Urith was an Anglo-Saxon Christian virgin who was beheaded with a scythe at the instigation of her stepmother, and a spring emerged at the spot where her head struck the ground. Scarlet pimpernels were said to grow abundantly in the surrounding area.

During the medieval period, the well and its associated chapel formed an important pilgrimage destination, attracting sufferers of eye disease in particular who came to anoint themselves on the first Sunday after St Peter's day. The income generated by these pilgrimage activities was used, at least in part, to build the tower of the nearby Grade I listed church, where the saint's remains are believed to lie. In the years immediately before the Reformation, pilgrimage income reached nearly £77.

The Reformation resulted in the removal of religious images and the demolition of the chapel, though the well structure itself survived and continued in use as a domestic water supply. In the 1950s, North Devon Water Board destroyed the post-Reformation well house but incorporated its lintel into the adjacent wall and covered the well structure with a concrete slab. Several years later, a hollowed stone slab which would have formed the lip of the well was discovered some 18 inches below the surface and was incorporated into a specially constructed recess below.