Description

OSWESTRY RURAL C.P.
SJ 32 SW
10/222

WOOLSTON

St. Winifred's Well
(formerly listed as the Well House in West Felton C.P.)

19.1.52

II*

Holy well and well house. Probably late C15/early C16 on earlier site, later additions and alterations. Well: regularly coursed dressed sandstone blocks; cottage: timber framed with painted brick infill, slate roof. Cottage is a single-storey T-plan with gable projecting over well. Framing: massive close-set vertical posts throughout with V-struts from collar to gable; boarded-over window to left of central boarded door on north side, integral yellow brick end stack to right with original shaped window-head below largely obscured by wooden lean-to. Well: consists of inner chamber over spring beneath cottage approached through narrow entrance to right; this inner chamber has a round-headed outer arch over low stone wall with moulded rectangular (? image) niche above, leading into a rectangular stone basin; this has a flight of four steps to each side and the water drains through a hole in the wall at the bottom end into a square basin below; this is also approached by steps to left and right and the water drains through a hole at its bottom end into the stream below.

Interior: inspection not possible at time of re-survey (July 1985) but said to contain an arch-braced collar beam roof in three bays with cusped struts forming quatrefoils and cusped wind braces. The well commemorates the miracle of a spring gushing forth on the spot where the body of the C7 Saint Winifred rested on its journey from Holywell to Shrewsbury; the present structure was probably built at the expense of Margaret, Countess of Beaufort, wife of Henry VII, who also re-built the larger pilgrimage centre at Holywell. A datestone said to be inscribed 1635 at the right of the entrance to the well's inner chamber was not visible at time of re-survey and there is no evidence to support the suggestion that the structure above the well was once a chapel.

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26 October 2016.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539391

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)