CustomHidden
The Wishing Well
Never tell the wish, or it won't come true.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Clear spring under stone arches
- Legend from
- Victorian tourist custom
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Drink, wish, and throw the rest over your left shoulder.
At Upwey a spring rises at the foot of a wooded bank and becomes the River Wey. It was made famous as the Wishing Well, and Weymouth holiday-makers came by the coachload. The OPC Dorset page quotes Frederick Treves, who remembered it forty years earlier as a spot of faint interest whose powers were ill-defined. A ritual grew up: the wisher drinks from a glass, keeps the wish secret, and throws the rest of the water over the left shoulder. Treves was scornful, but the custom stuck.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.