St Margaret's holy well and church, Binsey

Visited by two pilgrim routes: Eynsham to Oxford and the Newman Pilgrimage.

Highlights

• The holy well of St Frideswide beside the church

Electricity has yet to reach this rural church, though it is just a walk across the fields from Oxford city centre. The ancient healing well outside still flows strongly, undisturbed too by the passing of centuries. When it first became holy, Oxford was just a town at a convenient river crossing, the university a long way in the future. 

The well was high when we visited, after heavy rains in January. People had tied ribbons, or clouties, to the yew tree alongside. Veneration at this well might predate Christianity, although the British tradition of tying ribbons possibly began later after the pagan era ended. It was a Saxon, St Frideswide, who brought fame to this well in the early 8th century. A local princess, she founded the first monastery in Oxford and served as abbess. Her royal pedigree proved too much temptation for the Mercian King Ethelbald, who arrived at the monastery to seduce her. She fled here to Binsey, which is two miles from Oxford itself and prayed for a spring to sustain her. 

The king had been struck blind as punishment for his attempted transgression, but the merciful St Frideswide took pity on him and used her holy source to heal him. St Frideswide later built a chapel alongside her well. Here she performed further acts of healing, and the waters were probably used for baptism too. After her death it was managed by her Oxford monastery, which sent pilgrims here for healing minor ailments. Those who were seriously ill were allowed access to her tomb in Oxford’s abbey. Such an unusual, two-tier healing service reveals much about medieval attitudes towards relics. 

In later lore, the well was used for eye complaints and by women who had trouble conceiving. Henry VIII visited here with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The medieval wellhouse was eventually pulled down in 1639 and the spring was abandoned. Its current structure is from a 19th-century restoration. The Treacle Well in Lewis Carroll’s book "Alice in Wonderland" is said to be based on Binsey’s spring. In medieval English, 'treacle' means healing ointment. The well is named after St Margaret, as is the 12th-century church alongside, rather than its Saxon founder. St Margaret of Antioch was an early Christian saint so obscure she is usually thought apocryphal. The legend of her killing a dragon is used to symbolize the triumph of Christianity over paganism, which might explain her presence at Binsey’s ancient well. 

Directions

Binsey Lane, Binsey, Oxford OX29 5RJ

W3W: probe.cubs.gasp

GPS: 51.7691N 1.2978W

www.osneybenefice.org.uk

Oxford railway station 2.2km

The church and well are at the far end of Binsey Lane, which runs off the A420 Botley Road, about a third of a mile west of Oxford railway station. The church was unlocked on our visit, and the well is next to it in the cemetery.