A wishing well, called “Billy Hobby’s Well,” was in the field which is
now the Grosvenor Park, Chester, and a local poet sang thus in 1823--
I lov’d the tales that idle maids would tell,
Of wonders wrought at Billy Hobby’s well;
Where love-sick girls with leg immured would stand,
The right leg ’twas--the other on dry land,
With face so simple--stocking in the hand--
Wishing for husbands half a winter’s day,
With ninety times the zeal they used to pray.
Other wells round Chester were “St. Giles’ Well” at Spital Boughton,
“Jacob’s Well” near St. John’s Church, “Aganippe’s Well” at Newton,
and the “Abbot’s Well” at Christleton, which supplied the monastery at
Chester with water. It still exists, but the others are extinct.
Another wishing well was at Gayton, and a holy well at Alderley Edge.
St. Plegmund’s Well is in the parish of Plemstall (three miles from
Chester). It has been customary for many years to take the water used
for christenings in the church from this well.
A chalybeate spring existed in Delamere Forest, and was resorted to by
invalids in the eighteenth century.
The largest well now existing is the “Synagogue Well” at Frodsham,
which is close to the site of the ancient castle there, and may have
been connected with it. It still has a copious supply of water, and
has been cleansed and repaired, much to the detriment of its former
picturesque appearance.
There is no history attached to it nor any explanation of the curious
name. Major Egerton Leigh gives a fancy history of it in his _Ballads
and Legends of Cheshire_.
No traces of well-worship exist; but up to a late period the
inhabitants of Nantwich used to sing a hymn of thanksgiving at the
“Blessing of the Brine.” An ancient pit, called the “Old Brine” or
“Biat,” was decked on Ascension Day with flowers, and a jovial band
of young people celebrated the day with song and dance. Aubrey says:
“In Cheshire, where they went in perambulation, they did blesse the
springs--_i.e._ did read the Gospel at them, and did believe the water
was better.”
A remnant of _fire-worship_ existed at Alvanley, where, on the Toot
Hill, fires were made in the spring and autumn, through which the
villagers jumped.