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St Ann's Well, Repton

Dedication: Saint Ann Location: Repton Coordinates: 52.83966N, -1.56378W Grid reference: SK294269 Heritage designation: none

St Ann's Well, like the neighbouring well of St Thomas, was undoubtedly connected to Repton Priory, which was founded in 1153, and placed under the Order of St Augustine. It was a popular destination for pilgrims in Derbyshire, housing the famous shrine of St Guthlac, and there is a high likelihood that medieval visitors to Repton would have visited the village's holy wells in addition to seeing his relics. Intriguingly, however, whilst St Thomas' Well (if it is dedicated to Becket) appears to have been created by the priory at a later date, undoubtedly for the purpose of attracting more pilgrims to the village, St Ann's Well may be much older, and could predate the religious house itself.

Despite this, the earliest reference that I have found to St Ann's Well dates from 1851, when a mention of it was included in the first volume of Robert Bigsby's Old Places Revisited. Bigsby attested that the spring, in addition to Repton's "venerable crypt", and a nearby "alleged" Roman encampment, had been one of the "frequent scenes" of the antiquary Sir Ernest Oldworthy's "hours of relaxation" and "solitary musings". Bigsby described St Ann's Well as an "ancient spring", located "in a field on the western side" of the village.

Apart from Robert Bigsby's remarks, very little is recorded regarding the history of the holy well. Unlike St Thomas', I have been unable to find any record of healing properties ever being attributed to it, or even how it was used. Although the spring may appear too far out of the village to have ever been used as a water supply, it is not unknown for monastic institutions to have sourced their water from a spring some distance away, using lead pipes to transport it, and it is possible that this once happened at St Ann's Well. Indeed, its structure does not shed any light on how it was used, although it does look too deep to have been used for bathing.

One intriguing peice of information, which very possibly relates to St Ann's Well, and which was mentioned in 1925 in an issue of the Folklore Society's Journal, takes the form of a "custom" that is "mentioned continually" in the Constable's accounts for Repton: "Dressing the Holy Well". Whether this was performed at St Ann's Well, or at St Thomas', or at both sites, is unclear, but it is worth noting that the field in which St Ann's is located is called "Holy-well Field"; perhaps St Ann's Well was often simply called the "Holy Well". Either way, the fact that well dressing was carried out on at least one of Repton's wells shows that they were once viewed with great local importance.

I first visited St Ann's Well in September 2024, and afterwards wrote that it was "extremely overgrown and almost - but not quite - impossible to access". In 1966, according to the Historic Environment Record, it was observed that the spring was "almost silted up", and this is how it appeared in 2024: only a small trickle of water was issuing from the well, and it appeared to be filled with sand. I also found it exceedingly difficult to see the stonework itself, because the entire site was heavily overgrown with weeds.

However, when I returned in December 2025, the site was much easier to inspect, as there were no weeds covering the basin, and it no longer appeared to be as silted up as it had done previously. I was able to see that the spring arose in a rectangular basin, built into the steep hillside, consisting of regular, cleanly-cut stone blocks; these lined the southern, western and eastern faces of the well. The northern face, however, was much less built-up, and contained a gap, approximately half a metre in width, through which the water escaped into a small channel. The first metre or so of this channel appeared to be lined with very roughly cut stones. It was impossible to determine the depth of this basin, and it is very likely that its base is stone-lined too, but about a metre of stonework in height was visible above the surface of the water. The eastern and southern faces of the basin seemed to be in relatively good condition, but the western side was bulging outwards considerably, and looked very unstable. It was too overgrown in 2024 to see this bulge, but I have seen a photograph from 2018 that depicts this bulge in the wall, and it does not seem to have worsened since then, but the site is clearly at risk, particularly considering the fact that the stonework is very likely to be of a medieval date.

It is worth noting that the main photograph on this page (above) is from December 2025.

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