Southwell Manor, Southwell

Visited by a one-day walk from Thurgarton Priory and also the Robin Hood Way

‍Highlights

• Early minster with former baptismal pool
• Saxon carving

The holy well here was so important it gave the town its name. Even so, it has slipped into obscurity now, buried under the floor of Southwell Minster. The well was once used for immersion baptism, following a tradition that St Paulinus used it in the 7th century. He didn’t, as it happens, but the town gained a fabulous minster cathedral on the back of this mistake. It retains other pilgrim credentials and has its own one-day pilgrimage route, the Walter Hilton Way.

The minster also has a Saxon angel carving. It is in the north transept, at the far end on the left, above a door. The stone is referred to as the Tympanum (which means a decorative feature above a door lintel) and shows the Archangel Michael vanquishing a dragon.

The stone is the most visible link back to Southwell’s Saxon church, built in the mid-10th century by Oskytel, Archbishop of York. There is a tradition that Southwell had an earlier church, founded by St Paulinus around 627. He visited the area and baptised converts in the River Trent. The site of this baptism might have been at Littleborough or East Stoke, 4 miles to the south. The legend later became confused, and it was believed that Southwell’s pool was the site of this mass conversion.

The link to St Paulinus certainly raised the profile of the town, which became an important centre for immersion baptism because of it. The pool might have had a very early sacred history, since the minster is founded on the site of a Roman villa, remains of which can be seen in the south transept and south choir aisle. The minster also had the relics of an obscure saint from the Saxon era, St Edburga of Repton, who died around 700.

There are other wells around town, including a St Catherine’s Well that was famous for healing in the middle ages, now on private land. The cathedral fully understands the significance of its baptismal well, however. This water feature was originally just outside the minster, then incorporated into the building in the 1230s, in the cloister leading to the Chapter House from the north aisle. Whether or not this was ever once an active spring is unclear, but the minster is looking at ways of reinstating a water feature. On a further nature-loving note, the Chapter House is decorated with native leaf carvings.

A chapel is dedicated to St Oswald, the 10th-century archbishop of Worcester and York, with a note that he died while washing feet on Maundy Thursday (Worcester Cathedral. Another plaque by the high altar records that Queen Elizabeth II celebrated Royal Maundy here in 1984, a tradition whereby the monarch gives money to elderly congregants – another ritual that is only conducted on Maundy Thursday. Monarchs did once wash feet too, as it happens, the last time being in 1698.

Directions‍

Southwell Minster, Church Street (A612), Southwell NG25 0HP‍

www.southwellminster.org.uk‍

W3W: flop.partners.obey

GPS: 53.0770N 0.9548W‍

The minster is in the town centre, open daily 8am–7pm in the summer and in the winter to 6:40pm/dusk. Free entry, donations welcome.