At Rorrington, a township in the parish of Chirbury, was a holy well at which a wake was celebrated on Ascension Day.
In the account of this well given by Gomme (p. 82) we get a glimpse of many associated usages.
“The well was adorned with a bower of green boughs, rushes, and flowers, and a may-pole was set up. The people walked round the well, dancing and frolicking as they went. They threw pins into the well to bring good luck and to preserve them from being bewitched, and they also drank some of the water. Cakes were also eaten; they were round flat buns from three to four inches across, sweetened, spiced, and marked with a cross, and they were supposed to bring good luck if kept.”
The legend given by Quiller-Couch (p. 55) respecting St. Cuthbert’s well in North Cornwall is that “in olden times mothers on Ascension Day brought their deformed or sickly children here, and dipped them in, at the same time passing them through the aperture connecting the two cisterns; and thus, it is said, they became healed of their disease or deformity. It would seem that other classes also believed virtue to reside in its water; for it is said that the cripples were accustomed to leave their crutches in the hole at the head of the well.”
At the village of Tissington, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, the custom of well-flowering is still observed on every anniversary of the Ascension (Hope, p. 48).
We may gather from these associated observances at different places that the wells themselves were situated near circles, for the worshippers would not be distributed at such a time. This argument is strengthened by the custom of “waking the well” which took place on the patron saint’s day.
With regard to the time of the day or night at which well-worship took place, there seems little doubt that for the most part it was carried on at night. The practices connected with the “waking of the well” indicate this clearly, and when it is remembered that these ancient worships were carried on at a time when marriage had not been instituted, we can understand that many ‘pagan’ rituals savoured of sensualism as we should now think and call it.
The particular times when it was considered most propitious for the sick to visit the wells appear anciently to have been at daybreak or sunrise.
At the well at Farr, in Sutherlandshire, it is held that the patient, after undergoing his plunge, drinking of the water, and making his offering, “must be away from the banks so as to be fairly out of sight of the water before the sun rises, else no cure is effected.” At Roche Holywell, in Cornwall, before sunrise on holy Thursday was the appointed time.
Sometimes the moment of sunrise is chosen. To bathe in the well of St. Medan, at Kirkmaiden in Wigtonshire, as the sun rose on the first Sunday in May was considered an infallible cure for almost any disease.