St Erasmus' Well, Ingestre

Dedication: Saint Erasmus

Location: Ingestre

Status: lost

St Erasmus was a 3rd century martyr and Italian bishop, who is said to have been slowly disembowelled in Formia, Italy, in around the year 400. Although he was a popular saint in mainland Europe, his cult did not successfully spread to Britain; despite the fact that several English cathedrals are known to have once possessed small chapels of St Erasmus, he does not appear to be the patron of a single medieval parish church in the country. Indeed, not even the parish church of Ingestre is dedicated to him, and it bears the name of St Mary instead.

The well and associated medieval chapel of St Erasmus appear to have been constructed by William Chetwynd, who owned Ingestre Hall and the surrounding land, during the late medieval period, most probably as a commercial venture. It is said that he created the chapel and well during the reign of Henry VII, which lasted from 1485 to 1509; simply because of the site's unusual dedication, it is unlikely that there was a holy well here before this, making this probably the latest constructed holy well prior to the Reformation. Interestingly, Chetwynd clearly did not just wish to build another folly in the grounds of the park, as he appointed a priest to oversee the chapel, who was paid by the offerings of visitors. Walter Chetwynd, the descendant of William, described the creation of the well in his Memoir of 1680:

In the time of Henry the Seventh, upon what occasion I know not, William built a chapel on the Waste of Ingestre, and, dedicating the same to St. Erasmus, endowed it with certain lands for the maintenance of a priest, which a few years after became famous for certain springs of salt and medicinal waters adjoining to it; and was much frequented by lame and diseased persons, many whereof found there a cure for their infirmities. Insomuch that at the dissolution thereof (according to the relation of an aged person once a clerk therein) the walls were hung about with crutches, the reliques of those who had been benefited thereby. Nor was the advantage smaller which accrued to the priest, the oblations in this chapel being valued in the King's Books (25 Henry VIII.) at £6 13s. 4d. But being dissolved by Act of Parliament in the first year of Edward VI. [1547], it was purchased from the Crown by Roger Alford and George Harrison, gent., from whom it was repurchased not long after by Thomas Chetwynd, son of the aforementioned William.

Clearly, St Erasmus' Well had gained great local fame in a very short space of time. The value of offerings to the chapel given in the King's Books is equivalent to around £4,000 today, and, according to Robert Plot, writing in 1686 in The Natural History of Stafford-Shire, the parish rector "yet pays at this day for the Diſmes [tithes] of them". According to Plot, the chapel had long since been "demoliſhed", and, by his time, it was "wholy [sic] neglected, and overgrown with weeds". Plot himself analysed the water of the well, describing it as being "exactly of the colour of Sack", and concluded that the water contained both sulphur and traces of salt. William Withering, a famous physician, also analysed the water around a century later; unfortunately, I have been unable to find the results of his investigation.

Despite the well's medieval fame, it appears to have fallen out of use as soon as the chapel was demolished, and, by the late 19th century, the site's location had been forgotten, as it remains today. Nonetheless, clues as to where the well was located can be found in several books dating from before the well was lost, notably in Richard Brookes' New and Accurate System of Natural History, where it was stated that the well is "two miles from Stafford"; in The Beauties of England and Wales (1813), in which the site is said to be "between Ingestre and Stafford"; and in A New Display of the Beauties of England (1773), wherein it is affirmed that the site is "two miles north-eaſt of Stafford". It is worth noting that Stafford would have been much smaller than it is today in the 1770s. Additionally, Robert Plot made it clear that the well and chapel were constructed "in the grounds of the Worſhipful Walter Chetwynd Eſq". These four descriptions all point towards a certain area to the south-west of Ingestre Hall, which is unfortunately saturated with water sources and springs; although there can be no doubt that the well was one of these, it is impossible to identify which of them exactly was St Erasmus' Well.

It is worth noting that the location given for the site by the Historic Environment Record is definitely incorrect, and the confusion seems to have stemmed from Henry Edward Chetwynd-Stapylton's comment in The Chetwynds of Ingestre (1892) that the well was "likely on the outskirts of the park, opposite the salt works at Shirleywich". He also mentioned an unidentified informant who claimed that "some remains" of a chapel "are to be found in one of the coverts near the river". Chetwynd-Stapylton is clearly incorrect for two reasons: firstly, this would place the well and chapel site on the north-eastern side of the house, which is neither 2 miles from Stafford, nor between that place and Ingestre; and secondly, Robert Plot was clear that the chapel had been demolished. Indeed, the Historic Environment Record (which, of course, cannot always be trusted) asserts that "a former foreman" of Ingestre Hall had no knowledge of the remains of a structure existing at the location described by Chetwynd-Stapylton (historic Ordnance Survey maps, too, fail to mark any remains here or, in fact, any springs or wells in the vicinity). However, this foreman may not have been the most reliable source for information, as he believed that the well and chapel had been located at SJ97972459, 350 metres south-east of the Hall; this cannot be correct either, as it is, again, neither 2 miles from Stafford nor between Stafford and Ingestre, and there has never even been a water source at this location.