St Peter’s Church, St Kenelm’s Well, Winchombe

St Kenelm might be an obscure early saint, but his cult still thrives today with two separate pilgrim routes connecting this well to his church in Romsley‍

Highlights

• ‍‍Site of St Kenelm’s shrine
• Holy well (usually locked)

Finding St Kenelm ought to be easy: his coffin and holy well are still located at Winchcombe. He was also a very famous Saxon saint. Winchcombe on St Kenelm’s Day (17 July) had more pilgrims than anywhere else in England according to the 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury. Life was so much simpler for pilgrims back then.

The guide to the parish church, where he was buried, only mentions its local saint in passing. The church is not even dedicated to him, but to St Peter. And yet the church houses what some presume to be his medieval coffin, the first artefact of the elusive St Kenelm.

I eventually tracked down two stone coffins in this church with the kind help of the steward, a retired minister from the United Reformed Church who was equally curious when I told him the history. There is a large sarcophagus in the back wall of the nave, on the left as you enter, and a smaller one of similar date on the opposite side of the church. One of these might be St Kenelm’s shrine tomb. They are simple stone coffins, without patterns or inscriptions.

St Kenelm died young and was buried here in the early 9th century by his father King Kenulf. Some therefore conclude that the larger coffin belongs to the king, the smaller one to his saintly son. Unfortunately, the historical records about St Kenelm are so contradictory the story is in danger of unraveling the moment it is retold. An 11th-century account says he was killed, aged seven, on the orders of his wicked sister Quendreda. Contemporary historical records show that he was 25 when he died. A letter from Pope Leo III mentions that Kenelm was 12 years old in 798. He signed documents and charters up until 811. Not only that, his supposedly wicked sister had the distinctly un-wicked job of abbess at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent.

Details, details. Still, piecing together further documentary evidence does suggest that St Kenelm was killed as a young man, while fighting against the Welsh. The battle took place at Romsley in the Clent Hills, where there is another holy well dedicated to the saint. The body was brought 60 miles south and buried at Winchcombe Abbey. This was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and St Kenelm, and was perhaps founded by the saint’s father King Kenulf.

The abbey vanished at the Reformation, but the current parish church stands next to the site. The two coffins were discovered during building work to the east of the church in 1815, where the abbey once stood. For once, I think the church might be right to downplay its apparent saintly connections. The coffins are probably just coffins for burying underground, rather than displaying as any sort of shrine.

Two modern pilgrim routes have been devised, which trace the journey of St Kenelm’s body from the Clent Hills to this church in Winchcombe. The routes are known as St Kenelm’s Trail and St Kenelm’s Way.‍

St Kenelm’s Well‍

This holy well marks the last resting place of St Kenelm’s coffin on its 60-mile journey from Romsley to Winchcombe Abbey. It is a mile to the east of town, set amid fields on a hillside. The stone wellhouse is the size of a tiny room, with an effigy of St Kenelm above the door.

It took me ages to find this site, only to be confronted by a locked door. Armed with this book’s directions and slightly better luck, you should find St Kenelm less elusive than I did, since recent visitors have reported finding his wellhouse unlocked (see opposite).

Someone had snapped off a lower plank of the door when I visited, allowing sight of the inviting stone pool with a sandy bottom and clean water. It would be a memorable place to immerse in the ancient traditions of Christianity. Winchcombe’s parish church does hold an annual procession to this well.

The wellhouse was built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, according to a sign inside, and restored in Victorian times when the effigy of St Kenelm was added. Although it looks suitable for immersion, it is unlikely anyone built a bath for ritual Christian bathing in the late 16th century, since healing rituals were out of favour at the time. Although it looks rather small for a spa-type bath, that is a more likely function, and follows a pattern seen at other holy sites, reinvented for supposedly non-religious purposes.

Fortunately, the holy water emerges in a little stream just outside the wellhouse, in a patch of trees and bushes immediately downhill. Tired after searching so long, I sat and let the water slip through my fingers, the only tangible link to a once famous Saxon holy man.

Directions

St Peter’s Church, Gloucester Street (B4632), Winchcombe GL54 5LU‍

Winchcombe Parish‍

W3W: wool.translate.slanting

GPS: 51.9524N 1.9680W‍

Footpath to well starts by: Sudeley Hill Farm, Sudeley Rd, Winchcombe GL54 5JB

W3W: hiking.twisty.smarting

GPS: 51.9486N 1.9380W‍

St Peter’s Church is on the south side of Winchcombe, on the right as you head out of town along Gloucester Street (the B4632). It is open daily, 8:30 am to 4 pm (winter) or 5:30 pm (summer).

For the holy well, head east from Winchcombe along Castle Street towards Sudeley Castle. Drive past the castle entrance and continue for another half mile until you see the stone buildings of Sudeley Hill Farm on the left, with another farm on the right. The footpath starts through a metal gate on the track immediately beyond the Sudeley Hill Farm buildings and heads diagonally uphill. The footpath itself is indistinct, but simply walk uphill in the direction the footpath sign indicates, and you will see the stone wellhouse after five minutes, a walk of 500m.