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Saint · Bawburgh

St Walstan's spring

He died a farmhand and became a saint. Pilgrims still come to the spring his funeral cart left behind.

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Saint

St Walstan's Spring

Where the oxen stopped, the water came up.

See it clearly

What's there
Brick-covered holy well beside a round-towered church
Legend from
Medieval Life of St Walstan; Glyde (1872)
Best time
St Walstan's festival in May
Tone
Curious
SaintsHoly wellsFolk cures

Before you go

The parish says the well is behind the church in the private garden of a neighbouring house. Small groups are welcome, and groups of more than four should contact the Rector first.

  • St Walstan's Well, Bawburgh
  • Near B1108
  • The pin is approximate.

Two untamed oxen pulled a dead farmhand's body to Bawburgh, and wherever they stopped, water sprang from the ground.

Walstan was a farm labourer at Taverham who gave everything away and became the patron saint of farm workers. When he died in 1016 he asked for his body to be laid on a cart pulled by two oxen that had never been yoked, and to be buried wherever they stopped. Glyde says the oxen took him to Bawburgh, and that springs broke out where they rested on the way. The last spring is next to the church. Norfolk Heritage Explorer records that its water was sold in Norwich as a cure for scrofula, and that pilgrims came to his shrine until the Reformation.

Sources

  1. The Norfolk Garland, John Glyde (1872) —
  2. St Walstan's Well (NHER 9298), Norfolk Heritage Explorer —
  3. Heritage sites in Bawburgh Parish — couldn't verify exact URL (page og:url gives
  4. Walstan, Wikipedia —

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