Glastonbury Abbey, Tor and Chalice Well, Glastonbury

Multiple pilgrim routes converge here, including a one-day walk to Wells, the Glastonbury Water Way, and the Mary and Michael Pilgrims’ Way

Highlights

• Ancient abbey foundation
• Holy well of St Joseph
• Miraculous thorn tree
• Chalice Well
• Sacred bathing in the White Spring
• St Michael’s tower on Glastonbury Tor

There are two sacred towns in the shadow of Britain’s most enigmatic hill. One is the historical Glastonbury: site of a Saxon monastery and home to famous saints from the 7th century onwards. The second is a mythical realm: the Isle of Avalon, visited by one of Jesus’ personal followers and sanctified by the presence of the Holy Grail.

These two worlds inhabit the same striking landscape. At Glastonbury Abbey they don’t merely overlap; they collide to create England’s most puzzling early sacred site. We start with the history and move to the legends and myths, encompassing Chalice Well and Glastonbury Tor – all visited by the Glastonbury Way day pilgrimage; other pilgrim routes to the town include the King Arthur Way and Whiting Way.‍

Glastonbury Abbey

A few sections of this enormous monastery church still stand to their full height, set in a large parkland at the heart of Glastonbury town. The ruins alone are enough to illustrate the importance and power once attached to this ancient foundation. Most of the buildings date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Glastonbury was England’s richest monastery in 1086. It was still the second richest in the 14th century, after Westminster Abbey. There is a huge kitchen behind the abbey church dating from this period, the only part of the monastic complex with a roof. Its four huge fireplaces in the corners indicate the scale of the community.

The earliest historical reference to a monastery building comes from the early 8th century, an endowment by King Ina of Wessex to build a stone church. There was an earlier wooden church here that later writers mention, clearly predating the king’s church, but of unknown origin. Park that thought for a moment.

As you enter the abbey grounds from the museum, the former church stretches across the lawns in front of you. On the left is the east end, with the pillars of its chancel arch still standing. The middle of the church is the nave, and on the right is a large Lady Chapel, the most intact part of the church structure. It is also the most important in terms of Glastonbury’s spiritual heritage, the focus for all the early church activity.

The Lady Chapel is probably on the site of the mysterious wooden church that King Ine left intact when he built his stone church. This place remained a fixed point around which the rest of the abbey complex grew, containing a holy well, now called St Joseph’s Well, so ancient it might date back to Roman times.

You can see the well if you walk down to the basement level of the Lady Chapel and enter the doorway in the middle of the wall. Through the bars of a locked gate, it is possible to make out a circular chamber in the floor on the left, beneath a stone archway painted white (pictured left). This is perhaps the oldest feature of the abbey, almost certainly the location of the mysterious early wooden chapel.

This holy well is inaccessible. I later discovered that the abbey belongs to the Church of England, which presumably denies access on account of the precarious state of the ruins. It is still full of water, visible if you press the timer switch on the wall that turns on a light.

St Joseph of Arimathea

The well is dedicated to St Joseph of Arimathea, which brings us directly to the second set of Glastonbury traditions.

St Joseph of Arimathea appears in all four Gospels, the rich man who buried Jesus in a tomb he owned. The Glastonbury legends are based on what St Joseph did next, though the earliest of them was written in the 12th century. They say that St Joseph came to Glastonbury soon after the Crucifixion with the Holy Grail – a cup or dish used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Some add that he built the early wooden church here and that King Arthur and his knights later came in search of the hidden grail.

The story becomes increasingly elaborate in later versions, but there is at least some sort of logic to explain why St Joseph trekked all the way to England. Very late accounts say that the saint became wealthy through mining and used to visit Glastonbury to trade with Roman lead miners who worked in the area. It is on one such trip that he supposedly took the young Jesus with him, a tale that is alluded to in the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ by William Blake: “And did those feet in ancient time/Walk upon England’s mountains green.”

Britain certainly had trading links with the Roman Empire at the time but was not fully conquered until the year 43, a decade after Jesus was crucified. As an island out of the reach of imperial soldiers, Britain might have offered a safe haven for an outlaw with a secret to hide. In theory, anyway.

The first proper historical account of the abbey, written in around 1130 by William of Malmesbury, makes no mention of the Grail legend. In another of his books, however, A Chronicle of the English Kings, he does mention that St Joseph came to England as one of 12 missionaries, some of whom went on to found Glastonbury Abbey. Later writers added considerable color to these bare details.

It is worth pointing out that the monastery burned down in a catastrophic fire in 1184. The devastated monks, seeking a means of rebuilding their home, miraculously discovered the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere in the ruins in 1191. Legends about Glastonbury’s preeminent role in Christian history soon began to proliferate, weaving ever more fanciful tales about Arthur and his knights. Pilgrims and money flowed to the monastery, which rapidly grew again to become one of Britain’s most important institutions. How lucky is that?

King Arthur’s grave was moved to a place of honour by the high altar in the 13th century. The site was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1960s and has been marked on the ground in the middle of the ruined nave.

St Joseph also brought with him a walking stick. He planted this in the ground at Glastonbury, and it sprang miraculously into life as the Glastonbury Thorn. The tree is first mentioned in the 16th century, growing on Wearyall Hill, which is on the west side of town, the opposite side from the Tor. This tree was regarded as miraculous even after the Reformation until a Puritan soldier chopped it down in 1653 during the English Civil War.

Local people had, however, taken cuttings of the original, and several were replanted around Glastonbury in the 20th century. One specimen can be seen on the right as you enter the abbey grounds from the ticket office and museum. Botanists have studied this tree and it is indeed a species that grows in the Middle East – though common throughout Europe too. One final fact before diving headlong into Glastonbury myth: the surviving specimens of this tree are unique in that they flower twice a year. At Christmas and Easter.

Glastonbury Chalice Well and White Spring

The two holy wells of Glastonbury could not be more different, yet are just a few steps apart on the east side of town. Both are open to the public, the Chalice Well set in a sedate garden and the White Spring enclosed in a stone bathing house, echoing to the sound of falling water and the odd bit of New Age music.

The Chalice Well is said – by very late tradition – to be the true site of St Joseph of Arimathea’s well, the place where he buried the Holy Grail. It was first promoted as a miraculous healing well in 1750, but even then the link to the Grail was not initially made. The devotional garden setting is lit up by one curious natural feature – the bright red stains left by the iron-bearing spring water. This is basically rust and makes the stream of flowing water look like a gash in the landscape. It is easy to see why the water is said to flow over the Holy Grail, touched by the blood of Christ himself. Indeed, it is sometimes known as the Blood Spring. The water arises at the far end of the garden path and flows in a channel to a small pool near the entrance, sometimes used for bathing on request.

By way of contrast, bathing takes center stage in the candle-lit mystery of the White Spring’s stone wellhouse. Nudity is allowed for bathing and practiced by the custodians during the afternoon opening times, a mix of bodies performing all manner of rituals from chanting, immersion, votive offerings, and even devout prayer before a black Madonna statue from Brazil. Its exhilarating deep plunge pools are filled by a thundering fall of spring water, emerging into a vast circular basin. This is as close as Britain gets to authentic medieval water cult, the wellhouse open five days a week and free to use however the spirit takes you.

Glastonbury Tor

Looming over the Chalice Well gardens, and looming over north Somerset generally, the great hill of Glastonbury Tor is alive with spiritual significance. This steep mound is also known as the Island of Avalon, rising out of plains so flat they became a lake in wintertime.

Avalon is first described in 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote a rather fanciful history of early England. The name he uses means ‘Apple Island’, referring to a mythical land of plenty with abundant harvests. King Arthur sailed over the sea to Avalon after being wounded in battle, finding a safe place to recuperate. The identification of Glastonbury Tor as Avalon was made a few decades later, after King Arthur’s grave was discovered by the monks in 1191.

The iconic ruin on top is all that remains of St Michael’s Church, which was built in the 1360s as a remote part of the abbey complex. The church was destroyed at the Reformation, leaving only its tower. High places are often dedicated to St Michael, the archangel who fights dragons and casts down Satan from heaven in the book of Revelation (see St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, page 212). His presence often denotes a formerly pagan holy place that has been successfully conquered by Christianity. Whether that describes Glastonbury or not is a moot point.

Many early saints trained at Glastonbury before moving on to other places. Later legends claimed that many Celtic saints trained here too, including St Patrick and St David, but credible historical evidence is lacking. The following saints were known to be venerated here or had a significant association with the abbey. Date of death given in brackets.

Glastonbury Saints

St Aidan (651) — Northumbrian abbot, relics brought here from Lindisfarne in the 10th century

St Hilda (680) — abbess of Whitby, relics said to be found by miracle in Whitby and brought here in the 10th century

St Indract (about 700) — Irish missionary martyred at Huish Episcopi and then buried at Glastonbury

St Enfleda (704) — abbess of Whitby, relics brought here along with St Hilda’s

St Ethelwold (984) — bishop of Winchester, served here as a monk from 941 St Dunstan (988), Archbishop of Canterbury, served here as abbot from 940–955

Richard Whiting (1539) — the last abbot of Glastonbury, was dragged by horses to the top of Glastonbury Tor with two monks and then hung, drawn and quartered for treason on 15 November. He was beatified in 1895, the penultimate step towards being recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic church.

Directions

Glastonbury Abbey

Magdalene Street, Glastonbury BA6 9EL

www.glastonburyabbey.com

W3W: ahead.bath.newsstand

GPS: 51.1471N 2.7169W

Chalice Well

85–89 Chilkwell Street (A361), Glastonbury BA6 8DD

www.chalicewell.org.uk

W3W: handy.slings.supposes

GPS: 51.1435N 2.7066W (for the Chalice Well entrance)

The White Spring

Well House Lane, Glastonbury BA6 8BL

www.whitespring.org.uk

W3W: charm.objective.paths

GPS: 51.1436N 2.7057W (for the White Spring)

W3W: cardinal.reply.raven

GPS: 51.1447N 2.6987W (Tor)

Glastonbury town wraps around the ruined abbey, and the ticket office with museum is on Magdalene Street. The abbey opens at 9 am every day except Christmas Day, and closing times vary, with full details on the website. Tickets are £8.60 for adults, £7.50 for concessions, and £5.15 for children over five, with cheaper rates if purchased online.

The Chalice Well and White Spring are a few steps apart on the east side of town near the foot of Glastonbury Tor, by the A361. Chalice Well is open daily at 10 am, with closing times varying. Tickets are £4.60 for adults, £3.80 for concessions, and £2.30 for children over five. The White Spring is open from 1:30 pm–4:30 pm (closed Wednesday and Thursday), with donations welcome at the door.

To climb Glastonbury Tor, a convenient footpath starts near the two holy wells, at the foot of Well House Lane, 10m up from the junction with the A361 main road.