We commemorated the rescue of St Cleer Holy Well and Cross from the Heritage at Risk Register at our annual Well Dressing Ceremony last Friday – and what a special celebration with the local community it was!
Blue skies and glorious sunshine provided the perfect backdrop to the festivities, which included a parade up to the monument led by Merv Davey on Celtic pipes, readings in Cornish and English, the laying of posies, a blessing of the well, and (of course) a rousing rendition of Trelawney.
The festivities also showcased the talents of children from St Cleer Primary School. They paraded with a banner dedicated to the monument created in a special workshop with Cornwall Heritage Trust’s Education team and performed Cornish dances learnt alongside Alison Davey, an expert in Cornish dance and folk traditions.
St Cleer Holy Well and Cross is the only example of a well house with an open porch-like design in Cornwall. Its pillars, capitals and arches are carved with simple mouldings and patterns which were unusual for this date in Cornwall.
The open, arched form of the structure, with a steep gabled roof was probably intended to resemble a high-status saint’s tomb or shrine. Prior to the Reformation the interior may have been used to display the image or relics of a saint, to be viewed by pilgrims to the site, who would have had access to water from the spring covered by the building through the small double arch at the east end.
The first reference to the building was by the Cornish historian William Hals around 1700, who described it as ‘much decayed.’ In the 19th century, the spring water was piped to the roadside nearby, for the villagers’ convenience. In 1864 the well was restored by Lieutenant Henry Rogers in memory of his grandfather, the Reverend John Jope, who had been vicar of the parish for 67 years. At the same time, he established a trust for its maintenance, but by the late 20th century, with no trustees surviving, the site of the well had fallen into neglect.
Cornwall Heritage Trust acquired the site in November 2022 and took on its management. Historic England supported the charity with a grant to enable assessments of the site, tree surgery, some re-pointing, and interpretation to improve understanding and management of the site for future generations.
In November 2023, Historic England announced that the site would be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register thanks to these successful interventions.
Our charity was founded nearly 40 years ago to address concerns that far too many of Cornwall’s historic places were at risk, and helping remove this site from the Heritage at Risk Register shows just how important that mission remains today!
We’re incredibly proud to be caring for St Cleer Holy Well and Cross and keeping its story alive through community events like this.
Thank you to St Cleer Primary School, Liskeard Old Cornwall Society, St Cleer Parish Council, St Cleer Church, Jan Edmondson, and Merv and Alison Davey for helping make this event such a success.
