Derby Cathedral, St Alkmund’s Well, Derby Museum

Saintly sites linked by a one-day pilgrimage route to Derby Cathedral

Highlights

• Holy well of St Alkmund
• Saint’s sarcophagus in museum
• Peaceful cathedral
• Site of former church and shrine

St Alkmund’s once mighty reputation lingers in Derby, despite efforts to bulldoze his memory. The extraordinary decision by planners to knock down his magnificent church in 1968 arouses ill-feeling in the city to this day. The church’s foundations dated from Saxon times, but it was demolished to make way for an inner ring road.

This busy dual carriageway, needless to say, offers relatively limited opportunities for spiritual reflection. The city can count itself lucky that other places and items associated with its patron saint have survived and has at its heart a peaceful cathedral sitting on the site of an ancient church, although not that of St Alkmund himself. But with a bit of imagination, St Alkmund’s place in the city’s history, if not his actual church, can easily be re-established.

The first site linked to the saint is St Alkmund’s Well, a few minutes’ walk from the city centre. Its survival is something of a surprise, given the centuries of urban growth around it. The well was undergoing restoration when I visited, but the source still flows from its carved stone spout, at the bottom of a short flight of steps.

A sign warns that the water is unsuitable for drinking, but there is enough of a flow to take St Alkmund’s blessing here by hand. The completed restoration work seems to make access to the holy source slightly more difficult, with low railings around it, but has also given it a smart new landscaped garden. A tradition of dressing the well was revived in 1870 but had lapsed by the 1990s.

The saint is said to have blessed these waters when his coffin rested here on its journey into the city from Lilleshall Abbey in Shropshire. The site of his medieval shrine under the ring road is only a few minutes’ walk away, so presumably the procession paused here for final refreshments. The well has been considered holy ever since, and was famed in the middle ages for its curative powers. An interpretation panel alongside says countrymen visiting the city would seek out its location and rest their packs on it, seeking the saint’s blessing.

Pilgrims made their way from this well to St Alkmund’s tomb, which was housed in the now-demolished church. Nothing remains to mark the hallowed spot apart from a graffiti-covered stone plaque, set in a wall above the busy ring road. The city ended up naming this thoroughfare St Alkmund’s Way – a meagre form of compensation.

Greater consolation comes from the fact that the demolition uncovered a magnificent stone sarcophagus, buried in the Saxon-era foundations. Some experts believe this is the former tomb of St Alkmund. It now takes pride of place in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery, alongside other stone carvings from the early Christian period. You can walk around it and admire the intricate interlace carving, and a fragment of its heavy stone lid.

St Alkmund was clearly venerated with considerable enthusiasm in the middle ages. Despite being a prince, he was known for his humility and his acts of charity rather than his exercise of worldly power, donating money to the poor and to orphans. He was killed in about 800 by a usurper, King Eardwulf, who also murdered Alkmund’s royal father. St Alkmund was originally buried at Lilleshall, his shrine later translated to Derby to escape Viking raids.

The saint’s body was then moved temporarily to Shrewsbury Abbey, but returned to Derby in 1140, where it stayed undisturbed until the Reformation put an end to veneration at the tomb. Road builders merely finished the job off.

Quieter contemplation can be found at the heart of Derby in what is England’s smallest cathedral, a few minutes’ walk from the former site of St Alkmund’s church. This quiet and elegant building is a pleasant place to linger and has a tiny St Katherine’s Chapel in the crypt set aside for private prayer. I was surprised on my visit that there was no commemoration of St Alkmund in the building. Given that his grave site lay nearby for the best part of a millennium, and was destroyed within living memory, the omission is puzzling. The cathedral is dedicated to All Saints, which by definition includes St Alkmund. There was however a newly commissioned icon to focus a pilgrim’s thoughts, and the chapel is an easy place to remember the city’s patron. As so often in Derby, St Alkmund remains more notable by his absence than his presence.

The progress of St Alkmund’s body into Derby is marked by a number of other holy places, the nearest of which is his well, as described above. Just beyond the northern outskirts of the city lies the penultimate resting place, at Duffield, where St Alkmund’s body was kept overnight before being carried into Derby. Nothing survives of the original Saxon chapel that marked this resting place, but the peaceful church here is still dedicated to him.

Directions

Derby Cathedral, 18 Iron Gate, Derby DE1 3GP

http://www.derbycathedral.org

W3W: settle.bridge.parent

GPS: 52.9248N 1.4779W

St Alkmund’s Well

Bath Street, Derby DE1 3BS

W3W: levels.rear.mixer

GPS: 52.9295N 1.4782W well

W3W: port.barks.city

GPS: 52.9268N 1.4786W church site

Derby Museum and Art Gallery, The Strand, Derby DE1 1BS

www.derby.gov.uk/museums

http://www.derby.gov.uk/museums

W3W: pirate.relay.shakes

GPS: 52.9230N 1.4801W

Derby railway station 1.4km to Derby Cathedral

The three main holy sites in Derby can be walked in a few minutes. The cathedral is easiest to find, in the city centre on Iron Gate.

To find the well from the cathedral, leave through the front door, turn right and walk up Iron Gate then Queen Street, heading towards St Mary’s Catholic Church with its prominent tower. Walk across the small park to a footbridge over the A601 inner ring road.

Before crossing, go a few steps to your right to find the stone plaque, set into a low wall, marking the location of St Alkmund’s former church. Cross the footbridge and walk around the Catholic church to the right, down the steps, and head north for 300m along Darley Lane/North Parade. Turn right down Well Street, a pedestrian alley that leads to the well.Derby Museum and Art Gallery is in the city centre, a couple of minutes’ walk from the cathedral along Sadler Gate. St Alkmund’s sarcophagus is in the Archaeology gallery. The museum is closed on Mondays.

St Alkmund’s Church in Duffield is on the east side of town, on Church Drive, Duffield DE56 4BA.