LEGENDS

HOLYWELL - HERMITAGE AND ANCIENT SPRING:
HOLYWELL HAW (or HALL) is the site of an ancient spring on land just off the Ashby Road in Loughborough, between SNELLS NOOK LANE and the UNIVERSITY.

Now the site of HOLYWELL FARMHOUSE, the first known building here was a "hospitium", a refuge for brave and hardy souls travelling through the Forest. Presumably this would originally have been a wooden structure, but eventually it became a small stone building. One of the Gothic doorways now forms the entrance to the present farmhouse.

By 1180, this building had become known as the HERMITAGE OF THE HOLY WELL, belonging to GARENDON ABBEY. The old name of HOLYWELL HAW shows that the settlement was originally enclosed, the word "HAW" meaning enclosure or hedge. In 1330 the Abbot of Leicester bought "a certain parcel of wood in Holy-well Haw for £28" from HENRY, LORD BEAUMONT.

As time went on, the monks living here made fishponds and drains, and even a complete moat surrounding the building. Some evidence of this moat remains today, though parts of it now serve as the farmhouse vegetable garden. By the mid 13th century, the Hermitage was a dairy farm providing food for the Abbey.

Most of the existing farmhouse was built in the 15th century, but parts of the medieval structure are still visible, in addition to the Gothic entrance. There are traces of a 13th century doorway inside the house and a matching doorway in the larder, although this is now sealed up. On the first floor are timbers dating from a medieval extension upwards and many other extensions followed.

The change of name from HOLYWELL HAW to HOLYWELL HALL reputedly dates from a spelling mistake on some early documents. Nevertheless, the tenants of the time seemed to like to idea and "upgraded" the name of the farm to "Hall"! In 1842, it was owned by CHARLE MARCH PHILLIPS.

The spring itself is located a few yards downhill of HOLYWELL FARMHOUSE and is still used both for humans and animals. It is the only natural spring in the Leicestershire and Severn Trent area to be classed as "A1 DRINKABLE" and many medicinal properties have been attributed to the water. The most famous of these is found in the legend below.

The spring has never been known to run dry and it's icy temperature seems to indicate a very deep source.

THE LEGEND OF THE HOLYWELL:
The version of this famous legend that is known to most people is a poem by the Victorian historian and Antiquary TR POTTER in his "History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest".

Set in the early 14th century, it tells the story of LADY ALICE, who lived at GROBY HALL. One Sunday, here horse was taken ill, meaning she could not go to church with the rest of her family and had to stay behind alone in the Hall. But later that morning, to her dismay, she saw LORD COMYN and twenty armed men approaching the Hall with the intention of carrying her off to a forced marriage. The terrified ALICE quickly fled the Hall on foot, and resolved to reach the safety of GRACE DIEU NUNNERY, with COMYN in pursuit! After a series of close escapes, she eventually reached the Hermitage at HOLYWELL where,. exhausted by the journey, she collapsed and died. But her body was discovered by some of the monks who carried her to the Holy Spring and splashed water on her face and hands in an effort to revive her. As they prayed over her body, the water did it's work and LADY ALICE miraculously came back to life!

According to some versions of the story, she then dedicated her life to God in thanks and became a Prioress. But the best known ending tells that she recovered at GRACE DIEU and went on to marry EDWARD GREY of BRADGATE. Early historians have thought the legend may have arisen from the real life "carrying off" of Eleanor Ferrars.

This is POTTER'S version:

The oaks of the forest were Autumn-tinged,
And the winds were at sport with their leaves
When a maiden traversed the rugged rocks
That frown over WOODHOUSE EAVES.

The rain fell fast - she heeded it not
Though no hut or home appears;
She scarcely knew if the falling drops
Were rain drops or her tears.

Onward she hied through the OUTWOODS dark
(And the Outwoods were darker then)
She feared not the Forest's deepening gloom She feared unholy men.

Lord Comyn's scouts were in close pursuit,
For Lord Comyn the Maid had seen,
And had marked her mother's only child
For his paramour, I ween.

A whistle, a whoop from the BUYK HYLLS side,
Told Agnes her foes were nigh:
And screened by the cleft of an aged oak,
She heard quick steps pass by.

Dark and dread fell that autumn night:
The wind-gusts fitful blew:
The thunder rattled: - the lightning's glare
Showed BEACON's crags to view.

The thunder neared - the lightning played
Around the sheltering oak;
But Agnes, of men, not God afraid,
Shrank not at the lightning's stroke!

The thunder passed - the silvery moon
Burst forth from her cave of cloud,
And showed in the glen "Red Comyn's" men,
And she breathed a prayer aloud:-

"Maiden mother of God! Look down
List to a maidens prayer:
Keep undefiled my mother's sole child
The spotless are thy care"

The sun had not glinted on BEACON HILL
Ere the Hermit of the HOLY WELL
Went forth to pray, as his wont each day,
At the cross in Fayre-Oke dell.

Ten steps had he gone from the green grassy mound
Still hemming the HOLY WELL HAW,
When, stretched on the grass - by the path he must pass
A statue-like form he saw!

He crossed himself once, he crossed himself twice,
And he knelt by the corse in prayer:
"Jesu Maria! cold as ice -
Cold - cold - but still how fair!"

The Hermit upraised the stiffened form,
And he bore to the HOLY WELL:
Three Paters or more he muttered o'er,
And he filled his scallop shell.

He sprinkled the lymph on the Maiden's face,
And he knelt and he prayed by her side
Not a minute's space had he gazed on her face
Ere signs of life he spied.....

Spring had invested the CHARNWOOD oaks
With their robe of glistening green,
When on palfreys borne, one smiling morn,
At the HOLY WELL's HAW were seen.

A youth and a Lady, passing fair,
Who asked for the scallop shell:
A sparkling draught each freely quaffed,
And they blessed the HOLY WELL.

They blessed that Well, and they fervently blessed
The Holy Hermit too;
To that and to him they filled to the brim
The scallop, and drank anew.

"Thanks, Father! Thanks! - To this well and thee,"
Said the youth, "But to Heaven most,
I owe the life of the fairest wife
That CHARNWOOD's bounds can boast.

"The blushing bride thou seest at my side.
(Three hours ago made mine)
Is she who from death was restored to breath
By Heaven's own hand and thine".

"The Prior of ULVERSCROFT made us one,
And we hastened here to tell
How much we owe to kind Heaven and thee,
For the gift of the HOLY WELL".

"In proof of which - to the HOLYWELL HAW
I give as a votive gift,
From year to year three fallow deer,
And the right of the Challenge drift".

"I give, besides, of land two hides,
To be marked from the Breedon Brand:
To be held while men draw from the Well in this Haw
A draught with the hollow hand".

The Hermit knelt, and the Hermit rose,
And breathed "Benedicite!
And tell me", he said, with a hand on each head,
"What heaven sent pair I see!"

"This is the lost de Ferrers' child,
Who dwelt at the Steward's Hay;
And, father, my name - yet unknown to fame
Is simply EDWARD GREY".

THE LEGEND OF GARENDON POOL:
This story is said to have taken place at GARENDON POOL, between LOUGHBOROUGH and SHEPSHED in 1645. It first appeared in a London publication entitled:

"THE MOST STRANGE AND WONDERFUL APPARITION OF BLOOD IN A POOL AT GARRATON (sic) IN LEICESTERSHIRE".

The story goes that farmers had begun to notice that cattle were avoiding the pool and refusing to drink from it. When they investigated further, the water in the pool was discovered to have turned pink.

Over the next four days, the colour deepened until the whole pool was dark red - the colour of blood. Not only that but it had become thicker and more viscous - the consistency of blood, so much so that the surface no longer rippled in the breeze. The news quickly spread that Garendon Pool had turned to blood and people travelled from all over the region to see it. Some even dipped pieces of cloth in the "blood", which dyed them deep red, and kept them as good luck charms. Later, congealed lumps began appearing on the surface and sinking back down again.

This continued for four days, after which time the colour slowly disappeared and everything seemed to return to normal. In an effort to explain the mystery, the pool was drained and a layer of red "blood" lined to whole of the bottom of the pool. Throughout all of this strange event, the fish in the pool were completely unharmed.

The idea began to spread that the event was a sign of God's anger at the bloodshed of the Civil War, the four days of "blood" signifying the four years of bloodshed. But the fact that the water cleared again was taken to mean that peace would once again return.

What really caused the strange effects seen in the Pool has never satisfactorily been explained. More information about the motives of the person who originally published the story could throw a lot of light on the case!