St Melor's Well, Linkinhorne, Cornwall

Secluded even from the church dedicated to the same saint, this well sees little in the way of active pilgrimage‍

Highlights

• ‍‍Secluded wellhouse
• Parish church with wall paintings

Hidden behind gorse bushes in the corner of a field, this tiny stone wellhouse is impossible to see until you are a few steps away. You could, in theory, use it for immersion, but the ground all around is boggy from the overflowing spring water.

The wellhouse is among the most secluded in this book and seldom visited. There were no cloth rags (clouties) hanging from nearby trees. It was pouring with rain when I visited. On a sunny day, I would have stepped into this pool of clear water, but there was nowhere dry to leave anything.

It has clearly been designed as a place of veneration, with an empty niche above the door that once held a statue of the saint. Another niche inside, above the water, is too narrow for a statue but could have held a painted image of some sort. The wellhouse was built in the 15th century – the same date as the local church.

It is worth taking a look inside the church when visiting the well, not least because you’ll need to park your car outside it. There is an unusual wall painting called the Works of Mercy. A full-length portrait of Christ is surrounded by smaller scenes showing people performing the merciful deeds described in Matthew 25:35–36. These are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, taking in a stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and prisoners. A seventh mercy has been added: burying the dead.

The church is also dedicated to St Melor and has a file of information about the saint with a section on the holy well too. Many Cornish wells are devoted to local saints unknown outside the county, but St Melor at Linkinhorne is thought to be St Mylor, the 5th-century martyr and patron of Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire (page 274). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints lists two other Cornish churches dedicated to him, Merther Mylo and Mylor (page 194). Almost all details of St Mylor’s life have been obscured by later medieval retelling. He might have been Cornish or Breton.

Directions‍

Accessible on foot from:‍

St Melor’s Church, Churchtown, Linkinhorne PL17 7LY

www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2576

W3W: mild.shirtless.only

GPS: 50.5339N 4.3733W‍

It is a brisk five-minute walk from the church to the holy well. Leave the churchyard gate and turn left along the road. After 100m, the main road bends right, but keep walking straight ahead along a narrower lane. You pass the entrance to farm buildings just after this junction, and then after 50m, there is a breezeblock garage on the left followed by a farm gate. Walk another few metres to a second farm gate on the left and enter the large field. Walk diagonally across this field towards the far right-hand corner, which is about 300m away downhill. At the bottom, go right, around the gorse bushes, to find the wellhouse.