St.Gregory's Well

Preston Patrick, near Kendal

It's Friday night and the end of another week ... what could be better than a well hunt ...?

Yet another symptom of encroaching madness... well hunting after work.
I realised this evening that one of the essential credentials to earn your well hunter badge is to brazen it out ... which usually means walking with pride and certainty through a field which no-one ever seems to go into with the confidence of your deep seated well hunter intuition (and the added assistance of satellite map technology) ... in work clothes not entirely appropriate for the occasion ... on top of a rather prominent hill in sight of all and sundry including all travellers on the M6. It paid off I found St.Gregory's well.

It's a bit of a mystery this one (which of them aren't). The well is named after St.Gregory the Great. The nearby church (extra) is St.Patrick's. Preston Patrick, or priest-town Patrick is apparently named after a 12th century monastery and the 'Patrick' was an ancestor of the Curwen family of Workington. The current church was built on the site of previous chapels which were named after St.Gregory. The church was re-dedicated to St.Patrick when it was re-built in 1853. It sits in a striking location on top of St.Gregory's hill and if you head up the M6 at night you might have been spooked by the large illuminated cross that seems to hover in mid-air.

As I walked through the graveyard I was struck by what seemed to be a trend amongst the gravestones here for 'fell asleep'. There appears to have been a mass case of falling sleep in this neck of the woods, although sadly there was one 'born asleep'. We are a curious species in our struggles. I was reminded of Monty Python.