St Mary's Well

The building is a holy well dating to the 1860s, constructed by Reverend F.C. Hingeston-Randolph on the site of an earlier well. It is built of random rubble with dressed granite coping, situated directly onto bedrock and integrated into a significant west-facing scarp representing one side of a former roadway. The well house is a small, 1.7-meter-high rectangular structure with a pitched roof formed by stone corbelling, topped with a substantial triangular-shaped granite slab. A Maltese Cross is carved within a circular panel on the west-facing edge of this slab. The west-facing door incorporates reused, weathered, decorative stonework from a window above a horizontal lintel. Inside, the well basin remains as a rock-cut cavity where water from the spring collects. The early history of the well is speculative, with its antiquity partially derived from the name of a nearby farm. Reverend Hingeston-Randolph designed the well house based on the example at St Minver in Cornwall. The decorative stonework above the doorway was salvaged from Ringmore Church during its restoration in the 1860s. The form of the original structure and its potential pre-Christian significance are not known, although the rock-cut basin is probably original. The building is designated at Grade II for the probable survival of the original well basin, strong evidence supporting its holy well identification, its interesting design and construction communicating its function and historical context, its documented association with Reverend Hingeston-Randolph, and its connection to the Grade II holy well at St Minver, Cornwall.