Mystery
The Epsom Well
The cattle knew better.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Well-head in a modern housing estate
- Legend from
- 17th-century tradition
- Tone
- Light-hearted
The cows were dying of thirst, and still they wouldn't drink. Epsom found out why the hard way.
In a dry summer around 1618 a herdsman named Henry Wicker was looking for water for his cattle on Epsom Common. He found a trickle of water in a cow's hoofprint and dug a hole round it, and by the next day it had filled with clear water. Thirsty as they were, his cattle would not drink it. The water tasted bitter, and when people tried it they found it was a powerful purge. Within decades Epsom was a fashionable spa, and its bitter salts became the Epsom salts still sold today. The original well now stands among houses.