St Augustine’s Well, Cerne Abbas

The dubious legend that this was a miracle well created by St Augustine might have drawn medieval pilgrims, while today’s visitors follow the Cernunnos and Catherine Way

‍Highlights

• ‍‍Holy spring associated with St Augustine, aka the Silver Well

With the Cerne Abbas giant looming large over this holy well, it is not surprising that most experts consider it to be pagan in origin. Indeed, it is also known as the Silver Well, hinting at a non-Christian affiliation.

The well is a charming holy place, set in a tree-lined hollow on the edge of a cemetery. The water runs crystal clear into a shallow pool, trickling away through a stone-lined channel. I half fancy that the ‘silver’ label refers to the water’s sparkling clarity. Experts suggest the name refers to the votive offering of precious coins. The limpid water’s deity has long been forgotten, if so.

A chapel dedicated to St Augustine once stood over the sacred flow but was destroyed after the Reformation. The lime trees surrounding this little dell are known as the 12 Apostles, according to The Living Stream, creating an alternative form of sacred enclosure. You can’t see the giant from the well itself because of the trees, but it is only 300m away.

The site is properly cared for, and several people visited during the hour we spent here. A stone bench, carved with a biblical verse, was installed beside the flowing waters to mark the millennium. It is a peaceful place to take the holy waters and contemplate the different legends about the well’s origins.Starting with St Augustine himself, it would be nice to think the great missionary came this way during his seven years in England. He certainly attended a meeting somewhere near Bristol around 603, when he met some Celtic bishops, so we know he traveled southwest. Another explanation might be provided by the ‘historian’ Goscelin, although his 11th-century writings are notoriously unreliable. His Life of St Eadwold talks of a 9th-century hermit who struck the ground here with his staff, which flowered into a living tree, and caused a stream of holy water to flow. ‘Cerno el!’ he cried, as the waters gushed forth, a pun on the town’s name that means ‘I see God’ in Latin and Hebrew. Goscelin deserves marks for creativity but not much else.

St Eadwold lived in a hermitage beside the well until his death in 871. A humble man who survived on bread and the spring’s water, he was buried in his little cell. In the mid-10th century, his relics were translated into a church at Cerne Abbas. He was apparently the brother of the famous St Edmund King and Martyr.

A monastery was founded in Cerne in the 10th century, which explains the ‘Abbas’ part of its name. It was destroyed at the Dissolution, although a few structures survive around the town. The 13th-century village church was built by the abbey, for use by the parish.

A display on the path to the well recounted in neat calligraphy some of the charming superstitions associated with the sacred source. Its ability to cure infertility is no doubt linked to the neighboring Cerne Abbas giant. So too is the idea that girls can pray here to St Catherine to find them a husband. St Catherine was a hugely popular figure in medieval Europe, often invoked by girls seeking a true marriage.

St Catherine’s role was perhaps a gentle attempt to steer people away from pagan-style cavorting on the site of the giant. A chapel to St Catherine was built on top of the hill. And if you look carefully when visiting the well, an eroded carving of a Catherine Wheel can still be seen on the left-hand stone upright as you face the main pool. St Catherine was tortured on a wheel-shaped rack after refusing to marry the Emperor Maximinus in the 4th century.

Some historians claim the giant must have been carved in the 17th century, since monks would not have tolerated so lewd a neighbor. But the figure might not have caused too much upset among Saxon Christians despite what a modern mind might think. A number of Anglo-Saxon poetic riddles survive, written by monks, with copious double entendres. One clever new theory has been proposed by scholar Thomas Morcom: the giant originally depicted the local hermit St Eadwold naked (if somewhat embellished in later centuries) and waving the miraculous flowering staff. It’s a plausible theory: some holy hermits did practice extended nudity, something my recent book The Naked Hermit (2019) explores.

Directions‍

Access to cemetery and well from

Abbey Street, Cerne Abbas DT2 7JQ

W3W: affirming.doses.snows

GPS: 50.8110N 2.4750W‍

To find the well, start outside the parish church (which is easy to spot thanks to its tall tower). Walk north along the road (called Abbey Street) in the direction of the hill and giant. The road ends after a couple of minutes’ walk, in front of a grand stone building, with a big duck pond on your right. Walk past the pond and go through the cemetery gate on your right. Simply follow the right-hand path, which runs beside the stone wall, and it will lead you down to the well in a minute or so.