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 St
Helen's Well - Burnsall
(SE 02890 61792)
A footpath leads past Burnsall church (St Wilfrid) and follows the river
Wharfe upstream, passing Wilfrid's Scar, a craggy outcrop cut through by
the river. Tradition says St Wilfrid visited the area in the 7th century
and preached from this outcrop, perhaps in an attempt to convert the
local people who were of Scandinavian origin and most probably followed
their own Gods Odin and Thor etc.
About 1/2 mile from the village the footpath crosses a small stream of
water which flows from St Margaret's Well, while a little further
along the footpath is St Helen's well. The old OS map shows the wells
name but its position is not clearly marked, although Speight (1)
described the well as being a short distance beyond St Margaret's and
"close beside the river". A search of this
approximate area revealed a spring about 50m past St Margaret's
Well. This spring is to be found in a small inlet on the river bank,
where its waters actually rise in the river and the powerful spring can
be seen bubbling up through the river water. If this is St Helen's well then perhaps the river bank has eroded over
the last century, in which case the spring would have been a little further back
from the rivers edge when it was seen by Speight(1) and Hope(2), -who
remarked that both St Margaret's and St Helen's wells at Burnsall were
worth seeing.
Thruskeld (Thors well?) - Hebden
(SE 0288 6277 approx)
Both Hope and Speight, note a Thorskill
or Thors well, (between Burnsall and Hebden) and suggested this well may
have been dedicated to Thor, the old Norse god. The old OS map names
Thruskeld well, however the well is not clearly marked on the map, but
it appears to be a spring feeding an elongated pond. A brief visit in
october 1999 suggests the pond no longer exists but the spring may still
be there, perhaps supplying the fish rearing operation now located on
the site. ( further investigations required).
(1) Harry Speight, Higher Wharfedale
(2) R.C. Hope, The Legendary Lore of the
Holy Wells of England, 1893.
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