In the sleepy Cotswold village of Bisley lies the most impressive well in the county, a structure which is quite unlike any other 'round these parts. A semicircular stone building channels the beautifully clear water which rises in the mound behind it, a mound on which the church of All Saints is built. Five Gothic arched recesses issue the water into a shallow stone trough and then down into a subterranean gravel-lined pool. Two other channels emerge from the ends of the structure and fall into deeper stone troughs before overflowing and being taken away undergound.


The present structure dates from 1863 when local vicar Thomas Keble restored the well to its present grandeur. The well was long used as the local water supply, and is likely to have been revered for some time before the good reverend's welcome intervention. Indeed, there has been a church on this site since the Saxon period, and there is evidence that the area was a pagan religous site during Roman times. An excellent example of continued sanctity.


Keble, perhaps with a sense of humble anonymity, had the following inscription carved into the top of the wall:
     "O YE WELLS, BLESS YE THE LORD:
     PRAISE HIM AND MAGNIFY HIM FOR EVER."
RESTORED                                                               A.D.  1863.
 

In the churchyard is a tall stone monument known locally as "The Bonehouse". A hexagonal structure sits upon a circular base with a diameter of 1.7 metres. Upon this hexagon, six three-centred arches support a tall hexagonal spire. The spire is crowned by a small wheel cross, a later addition. It has been suggested that the baptismal font would once have adorned the top of the structure in place of the cross.


A number of theories have been forwarded concerning the Bonehouse. It has been suggested that it is a twelfth or thirteenth century well cover because of its similarity to the Saxon font in Deerhurst church, Gloucestershire. Another theory has it as a Mediaeval lantern for the "poor souls' light", alms for the poor being left in the nooks above the arches. If this is true then it is a very rare survival, possibly unique in this country. A final, fanciful, theory says that it is the entrance to a subterranean passage leading to the church.


Tradition tells us that the well was covered over at some indeterminate point in the past because a priest fell down it and drowned whilst on his way to attend to a dying parishioner one night. Another story says that a labourer named Pearse fell into the well when effecting repairs to the church. Both scenarios had the same effect, the excommunication of the church for two years by order of the Pope, and all corpses having to be sent eighteen miles away to Bibury for burial. Such is the esteem that this well was held in. During Keble's restoration, a Norman font, with a carving of two fish on the inside was found inverted on top of the well head. It was returned to the church and can still be seen there today.


Keble was also responsible for the creation of a well-dressing ceremony at the site. Annually, on Ascension Day, a church service is followed by a procession down the hill to the well where the well is blessed and decorated with flowers by the local school children. Although the ceremony is of a Christian nature, it is quite a low-key affair, more akin to the traditional way in which well guardians were honoured with gifts, rather than the gaudy affair seen in the more famous well-dressing ceremonies in Derbyshire.


As an aside, Thomas Keble was the younger brother of John Keble, the leader of the Oxford Movement. A movement that aimed to stir new life into the Church of England and restore some of the ideals that the Church held dear in the early centuries of its existence. Thomas did a great deal to invigorate the local community in a period of economic depression and fortunately his vision extended as far as the well.


If you only visit one well in the Cotswolds area, make it this one. Even though it is in the middle of a village, the well itself is very peaceful, and very beautiful in a Gothic and symmetrical way. There is always a strong flow of water which adds to the impact of the site. Furthermore, the continuity of use which it has enjoyed has clearly strengthened its numinance.

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