St Chad's Well, Peterborough

St Chad, the patron saint of medicinal springs, is not known to have ever travelled to Peterborough, although the city was once part of the kingdom of Mercia, where he worked as a missionary during the 7th century. In fact, this site appears to have become associated with St Chad's cult comparatively late.

A version of the legend that was, historically, associated with St Chad's Well at Lichfield (and with the martyrdom of St Ruffin and his brother Wulfhad in Staffordshire) is now ascribed also to this well at Peterborough. The slightly altered version of the story that applies to Peterborough follows roughly the same narrative as the original Lichfield legend (see the page for the Lichfield well), apart from the fact that the events take place in Peterborough. The Peterborough version asserts that St Chad deposited Wulfhad's heart in the well at Peterborough, thus making it a holy site. It seems that the monks of Peterborough, hoping to profit from the already popular cult of St Chad, pinched the Lichfield story and altered it so that it related to their own abbey, with the sole aim of creating a new attraction that would draw more pilgrims in.

The monks even went as far as advertising this story in the stained glass windows that once overlooked the cloister, the location of what became known as St Chad's Well. Unfortunately, though the windows survived the Reformation, they did not survive the Civil War. The new version of the story was set out, in verse, in a sort of caption beneath these windows; below is William Dugdale's transcription of these captions, as he published it in Monasticon Anglicanum in 1655, only a few years after their destruction:

King Penda a Paynim, as writing ſayth,
Got theſe five children of Chriſten fayth.

Kyneburga and Keniſwitha, as I reade,
Peada Wlfer and Etheldred.

The noble King Peada, by God's grace,
Was the firſt Founder of this place.

By Queene Ermenild had King Wlfere
Theſe twae Sonnes that yee ſee here.

Wlfade went forth, as he was wont,
In the Forest, the Hart to hunt.

Fro all his men Wlfade is gon,
And ſuyeth, himſelf, the Hart alone.

The Harte brought Wlfade to a Well
That was beſides St. Chad's Cell.

Wlfade asked of St. Chad,
Where is the Harte that me hath lad?

Wlfade prayeth Chad, that goſtly leach,
The faith of Chriſt him for to teach.

St. Chad teacheth Wlfade the fayth,
And words of Baptiſme over him ſayth,

St. Chad devoutly to meſſe him dight,
And ſhrived Wlfade Chriſt his knight.

Wlfade ſtayed with St. Chad that day,
And bad him for his Brother Rufine pray.

Wlfade told his Brother Rufine,
How he was Chriſtned by Chad's Doctrine.

Rufine ſaid to Wlfade againe,
Chriſtned alſo would I bee fayne.

Wlfade Rufine to St. Chad brought,
And Chad with love of Chriſt him taught.

Rufine is Chriſtned of St. Chad, I wis,
And Wlfade, his Brother, his Faver is.

Werbode, Steward to King Wlfere,
Told his Sonnes both Chriſtned were.

To Chad's Cell Wlfere gan go,
And Werbode brought him hitherto.

Into the Chappell entred the King,
And found his Sonnes Chriſt worſhipinge.

Wlfere, in woodneſſe [madness], his Sword out drew,
And both his Sonnes anon he ſlew.

King Wlfere with Werbode tho
Buried in Grave his Sonnes two.

Werbode for vengance his own fleſh tare,
The Devil him ſtrangled, and to Hell bare.

Wlfere for ſorrow was ſick,
In Bed he lay a dead man like.

Saint Ermenild, that bleſſed Queene,
Councelled Wlfere to ſhrive him cleane.

Wlfere contrite ſhriſt him to Chad,
As Ermenild his Wife him councell'd had.

Chad had Wlfere, for his ſinne,
Abbies to found this rewme within.

Wlfere in haſt performed then
To build what Peada his Brother began.

The Abbot Saxulfe, with his Monkes there,
Did Worſhip to King Wlfere.

The third Brother, King Etheldred,
Confirmed both his Brothers deed.

The fact that St Chad's Well is not only a deep well (it goes without saying that this is highly unusual for a holy well) but that it also seems to have been the abbey's main water supply further suggests that this was a clever enterprise on the behalf of the monks. However, although the site never had an authentic link to the real St Chad, it was, at least by the late medieval period, an authentic part of St Chad's popular cult, and medieval visitors would almost certainly have treated it much the same as they treated St Chad's other holy wells.

Historically, the site and legend seem to have been quite well-known to local historians (today, the opposite is true: all signage in the Cathedral simply calls it the "Abbey Well"). In 1686, Simon Gunton, who noted that the legend was more appropriately applied to Lichfield, mentioned both the legend and the well in The History of the Church of Peterburgh:

From the sound of Gunton's statement, and also from later 19th century sources, it appears that the well was at some time covered over, either following the Reformation or the Civil War. Old Ordnance Survey maps simply mark the "site of" St Chad's Well, and it was described as being "covered over with a flat stone and some earth" in a footnote in An Epitome of Mr. Gunton's History of Peterborough Cathedral, which was published in 1825.

Today, the earth has been lifted from the well, and it can still be seen in the centre of the cloister, although it is covered over and cannot be accessed. When I visited the site in the February of 2025, there was no mention of the legend or its association with St Chad's cult on any of the nearby interpretation boards.