HOLYWELL
is a place of considerable trade and bustle, with easy access to the sea. It is pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, possessing many good houses; but is chiefly famous for its well, which although only little better than a mile from the sea, furnishes a sufficiency of water to work eleven mills and factories, viz. one corn mill, four cotton mills, and six copper and brass mills and forges.
The quantity of water thrown up is, on an accurate calculation, proved to exceed eighty-four hogsheads in a minute. It is covered by a small Gothic building, the canopy of which is of most delicate workmanship. For its origin, miracles, &c. I must refer the reader to the Life of St. Winifred, or some of the numerous authorities that have particularized them: suffice it to say, that the devotees of this saint (whose head was cut off, and so effectually replaced on her shoulders, that she survived it fifteen years) were very numerous; and in the last age the well was so noted, that, according to Mr. Pennant, “The Prince, who lost three kingdoms for a mass, payed his respects on the 29th of August, 1686, to our saint, and received as a reward a present of the very shift in which his great grandmother, Mary Queen of Scots, lost her head.”
“The Church being situated below the town, the sound of the bell can be heard but a short distance; to summon the inhabitants to their devotions, therefore, a person parades the town with a large bell, suspended from his neck.” [237]
The supply of water from this well is scarcely ever perceived to vary; and it has never been known to be frozen, a circumstance of far greater importance than its miraculous qualities.
The stage from Holywell to Flint is only six miles, and, like Flint itself, affords little subject for observation or remark.