St.Wilfrid’s (well)

A dismal wet old day with lots of tedious chores this morning.
Random musing on how some things seem to be ludicrously complicated and confounding, today it was the bafflement of bras and car insurance. After telling the woman on the phone that I was in danger of boiling my head in a bucket we seemed to come to a ground down agreement and I headed off for a food shop and continue to struggle to try to reduce plastic purchase.

What to do to break the tedium? Why, it’s holy well month that blends seamlessly into a year, of course. Thank goodness.

I knew this one was going to be a lesson in futility having done my research but the weather was dire and it’s the nearest unexplored well to me so far. I hope freespiral might let it in on the grounds of first-of-the-season effort.

Fortified by holy well pills and quietly muttering the holy well mantra for enhanced confidence to bravely go over the top, I headed around the very salubrious suburbs of Brougham Hall.
I’d seen it on the map, I’d read about it in the archeological listing, I reckoned it was in the back garden of house 3 of Brougham Hall Gardens crescent. I peered furtively over the hedges of Penrith’s answer to The Stepford Wives and then tried the footpath round the back. Curtains twitched. I speculated about patios, wondered what the trampoline covered and removed my bobble hat in respect for the dismembered head of Bob the Builder summarily executed presumably because he failed to fix it last summer.

No joy. Not even a garden water feature.

So, I headed over to the chapel and took this. It was very wet and bleary so I’ve messed about a bit to make it look like one of those old tinted postcards.

As I wandered I was discombobulated by the history to be had within such a concentrated area here. Just across the way are the ancient sites of Mayburgh Henge and Arthur’s Table, under my feet lies a Roman road heading for Brougham Castle, in the fields the site of the last battle on English soil (Clifton Moor), St Ninian wandered through, various monarchs called in at the Hall, Churchill had his lunch in a tent when he came to look at secret war stuff and Lord Brougham designed the Brougham carriage a was a committed abolitionist helping to see the anti-slavery bill through parliament. A true lay line of history.

Time for a cup of tea and bra burning said Zebedee.