Today the clocks were changed in England, and for the little church I love up in Binsey (Thornbury actually, but that’s another story), it means that Evensong service at 3:30PM has started again. It’s been months since the clock fell back in October and the last Evensong of the season was held, so I’ve been looking forward to walking up along the Thames, past Port Meadow, past Binsey, and up to St. Margaret’s Church in Binsey for the service.
It’s a lovely walk. I left the house and walked across Botley road to join the Thames Path as it leads up to Port Meadow. Yesterday there was a cold Arctic wind, but today it felt like spring, even with the heavy clouds in the sky. Here are a few pictures of the walk along the towpath to Port Meadow:
Port Meadow:
After passing Port Meadow, I followed the road to Binsey:
Which has delightful rustic cottages and houses, and a pub called The Perch:
Then I arrived at St Margaret’s Chruch, and visited St. Margaret’s Well, the healing well that was a pilgrimage site for hundreds of years. The site was primarily a healing well, but it was also known for its fertility. I read that King Henry the VIII and Catherine of Aragon visited this well in hopes of concieving a male heir, (hmmm, well we know how that turned out don’t we?). The well also shows up in Alice in Wonderland as the “Treacle Well” discussed at the Mad Tea Party. The real-life Alice had a governess who lived in the house next to the church, and Lewis Carroll incorporated the story of the Treacle Well into his book to amuse Alice.
Modern-day pilgrims still visit the site, some leave “offerings” which can be seen tied to the tree beside the well:
Or laid around the well:
Here are a few photos of the church:
After the service, I walked back home and took a few more photos:
Robert, these photos are wonderful. I’ve tried so many times to take those ‘trees reflected in the water’ shots…to no avail.
What a beautiful part of England you live in!
Thank you Archer. The reflection photos were purely a matter of good timing. I saw the intense light and the reflection on the water, and just took some photos. The day was incredibly beautiful, and yes, I do feel very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for leaving a comment.
Take care!
robert
Dear Robert, I am reading Alice and Wonderland and I had asked my mother what a treacle-well was and treacle is a type of molasses if I am correct. So I was wondering if there were two types of teacle wells and why they had left offerings. I thought that by context clues it meant a well full of molasses.Also, I am not from England I am from the United States of America.
Hi Connie,
That’s sort of the joke that is occurring in the Alice during the tea party! Alice is saying that there is no such thing as a Treacle Well, because she is imagining a well full of sweet treacle. LOL.
But if you take a look on the WIkipedia page, you’ll see that it has an older meaning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treacle
Wikipedia says:
So the well in Binsey is a famous “Treacle Well” that people used to travel to for healing. Supposedly, the water from the well had healing properties, and was connected with several saints. People would come to the well, drink the water, and some would feel that they had been cured. There are reports that people used to leave their crutches all over the area because they didn’t need them any more. Other people would leave little tokens of appreciation, sometimes called “votives”, as a thank you in expectation of a healing. Some people today still feel that this well, and other wells as well, have a sacred nature to them, and might actually still have the ability to influence their lives… so the leave little tokens of appreciation either tied to the trees or along the side of the well.
The little girl named Alice, who the character in Alice in Wonderland is based upon, used to have a governess that lived next door to the church where the Treacle Well is, so on the hot summer day when Lewis Carroll, Alice, her sisters and father rowed their boat up the river, they passed the area where the church was and Carroll incorporated the story of the Treacle Well into the book, and made it a pun to suggest that there was a well that had “Treacle” in it.. so Alice thought of the candy syrup, when really, the older meaning of the word was for the healing properties.
Cheers!
Robert
[...] have enough medieval content to qualify for the assignment, such as my beloved little church in Binsey; I would love to talk about the healing well that attracted so many pilgrims during the middle [...]