Ailsa Well

Holy Wells:
https://megalithix.wordpress.com/sites/holy-wells/

The above link set me looking at wells in my local area; Freespiral instigated a Holy Wells month for February and I clicked the link on her blip a couple of weeks ago and was astonished to see how many wells are listed not just in West Yorkshire but in this area.

This one can be seen just off the River Walk in Bingley ( I've passed it often but never noticed the sign) it seems to be reasonably well kept and sign posted but unsurprisingly had some plastic rubbish in the well bottom as the trees bordering the river are full of detritus from the Boxing Day floods that hit here.  The well itself is the bottom right picture and its location is in the Amin picture.
Immediately in front of it is a bank of snowdrops and a rather nice commemorative stone set in the wall. Again something I've not noticed before.

Other wells mentioned in Bradford are the Boar Well, reputedly the place where the last wild boar of Bradford (Broadford) was killed. That's supposed to be somewhere off Canal Road. I actually discovered a Bradford well walk done in 1994 but the instructions are not detailed. As well as taking in the Boar Well and Ailsa Well here in Bingley it mentions one within the St Ives Estate but I can't find anyone whose heard of it. It reputedly supplied most of Bingley with its water so you would think it would be easily found and there are some covered water storage tanks up there. It doesn't help that the walk suggests climbing through barbed wire fences and brambles to get to it from the main road! There is also one reputedly below Altar rocks in the same area but the report on that says it wasn't found and might involve a climb to get to it.


It has certainly opened my eyes to wells. If you think about it you will certainly know lots of place names incorporating the word well. Ash well is said to be in Heaton, Bradford and I have a friend who,lives on Ashwell Road there. More unusually Goff Well is mentioned in Keighley between The Guide Inn and Hainworth and I've often thought Goff Well Road was a strange name for a country lane. Some more obvious local ones/names are Jacob's Well in Bradford and White Wells in Ilkley.

This one was the most easily accessible today in a break between the sleet showers and before the start of the rugby this afternoon. Hopefully I will get to see some more especially as the weather improves as not all of them are going to be easily accessible.

If you are curious to see if you have any wells near to you click the link above.

PS I've noticed the wall plaque isn't very clear in the collage it says: Remembering Ernest Davies who loved Bingley and tried to make it a pleasanter place.