Low Well

Great Strickland

After a week feeling like living in the middle of Corryvreckan I did more optician and boring stuff this morning and then thought it was time for a walk but the weather was grim so I decided to nab a nearby well.

It's a rum old business, this well thing. Sometimes they just become curious historical jigsaws. I've driven past this one many times and never really noticed it. In my defense I'm usually driving the 'wrong' way, it's easier to see heading out of the village and I'm usually going the other way and at night. When I saw it I thought it was a proper holy well, next to the village church and everything. But I'm not sure there is any association. I can't find anything specific out about it but, interestingly, the church was a real latecomer, built in 1870. I've since discovered that Great Strickland was staunchly Quaker and apparently in 1655 it was considered to be the most important stronghold of Quakerism in Westmorland.

Anyway, it has become a thriving home for a healthy community of Hart's Tongue Fern and has a rather lovely quirky old garden front gate.