St Cuthbert's Well

St Cuthbert's Well, known locally as Cuddy's Well, is an ancient holy well in the village of Bellingham, adjacent to St Cuthbert's Church, an eleventh-century church associated with the cult of the seventh century monk, bishop and hermit St Cuthbert.

Sed nullius Sanctorum Dei memoria eis magis innotuit, quam Beati Cuthberti gloriosi Confessoris, cujus venerationi sollemni ecclesiola in eadem villula dedicata fuit. Infirmantem igitur ad ecclesiam producunt, et pii Confessoris clementiam lacrimosis desideriorum votis exposcunt. Nunc de fonte, qui Sancti Cuthberti dicitur, aquas exhauriunt, et ori languentis vel manui contractae perfundunt, modo altaris sullimia adeunt,quandoque curvante poplite solotenus prostrati Domini clementiam implorarunt.

Extract from first miracle, CVIII, Libellus, Reginald of Durham

Cuddy's Well, Bellingham

Three miracles at Bellingham, connected with the mediaeval cult of St Cuthbert, are recorded in the twelfth century Libellus[1] of Reginald of Durham. They concern Sproich, a poor but pious man employed as a bridge-builder by the Almoner of Durham.In the first miracle, after Sproich's daughter Eda stays away from church to sew a dress on the feast day of St Lawrence, her left hand becomes paralysed, clutching the dress. She is miraculously cured by an apparition of St Cuthbert after drinking water from the well. In the second, on the occasion of Eda's marriage, Sproich's cow is seized in payment by a bailiff of the local lord and placed with another tenant. whose house is later struck by lightning. The cow is miraculously spared. In the third, a thief called Walter of Flanders and his accomplice, who have stolen Sproich's axe, are fatally attacked by the head and the handle of the axe.

The well, in a lane next to St Cuthbert's Church, is now directed through a Georgian conduit, known locally as a pant. The water is still used for baptisms. According to local tradition St Cuthbert originally discovered the source of the well.[2][3]

Notes
  1. "Little Book of Miracles of the Blessed Cuthbert Performed in Recent Times"
  2. Bord & Bord 1986, pp. 203–204
  3. For the miracle on Farne of Cuthbert producing water from dry land by his prayers, see Colgrave (1940, pp. 217–219).
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References
  • Reginald of Durham, Reginaldi Monachi Dunelmensis Libellus de Admirandis Beati Cuthberti Virtutibus Quae Novellis Patratae Sunt Temporibus
  • Britton, John; Godwin, George; Le Keux, John (1883), A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages, Longman, p. 173, definition of pant
  • Smith, Beverley Ballin; Taylor, Simon; Williams, Gareth, eds. (2007), West over sea: studies in Scandinavian sea-borne expansion and settlement before 1300 : a festschrift in honour of Dr. Barbara E. Crawford, Northern world, 31, Brill, pp. 195–226, ISBN 90-04-15893-6, "A Norwegian in Durham: Anatomy of a Miracle in Reginald of Durham's Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti" by H. Antonsson, S. Crumplin and A. Conti (for a summary of the three miracles)
  • Hope, Robert Charles (1893), Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England Including Rivers, Lakes, Fountains and Springs, Elliott Stock, London (for a paraphrase of the first miracle from Reginald of Durham's Libellus)
  • Bord, Janet; Bord, Colin (1986), Sacred waters: holy wells and water lore in Britain and Ireland, Paladin, ISBN 0-586-08524-6
  • Colgrave, Bertram (1940), Two Lives of St. Cuthbert, Cambridge University Press
  • Tudor, Victoria (1989), "The Cult of St Cuthbert in the Twelfth Century: The Evidence of Reginald of Durham", in Bonner, Gerald; Rollason, David W.; Stancliffe, Clare (eds.), St. Cuthbert, his cult and his community to AD 1200, The Boydell Press, pp. 447–468, ISBN 0-85115-510-3 (for a discussion of the role of Reginald of Durham's Libellus in the cult of St Cuthbert)

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