St Cuthbert’s Well, Bromfield

In ‘The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England’ by Robert Charles Hope (1893) we are informed that; ‘In the parish of Bromfield, in the neighbourhood of Blencogo, “on the common to the east of that village, not far from Ware-Brig, near a pretty large rock of granite, called St. Cuthbert’s Stane, is a fine copious spring of remarkably pure and sweet water, which (probably from its having been anciently dedicated to the same St. Cuthbert) is called Helly-Well, i.e., Haly or Holy Well. It formerly was the custom for the youth of all the neighbouring villages to assemble at this well early in the afternoon of the second Sunday in May, and there to join in a variety of rural sports. It was the village wake, and took place here, it is possible, when the keeping of wakes and fairs in the churchyard was discontinued. And it differed from the wakes of later limes chiefly in this, that though it was a meeting entirely devoted to festivity and mirth, no strong drink of any kind was ever seen there, nor anything ever drunk but the beverage furnished by the Naiad of the place. A curate of the parish, about twenty years ago, on the idea that it was a profanation of the Sabbath, saw fit to set his face against it ; and having deservedly great influence in the parish, the meetings at Helly-Well have ever since been discontinued.”—Rev. J. Wilson in Penrith Observer.’

Note: I do not know the exact location of the well yet so the map just shows a place in Bromfield.