Pagan Rituals at St Ann’s Well

Anglo-Saxon paganism can be traced back to the 5th and 7th centuries when pagan tribes dominated England, although it has to be said very little is known about this early period of paganism. Bob Trubshaw in his paper published in "At the Edge No.3 1996," gives a reason for this, referring to Hutton, `The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore' op. cit.:

"The modem era is much better documented regarding folk customs. Superficially, this might be thought that our society became more self-conscious of the need to preserve itself in writing. But this is somewhat inaccurate. Plenty of records exist in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but the popular customs were so commonplace that they were rarely considered worthy of mention, except when unusual rowdiness or other irregularities entered the annals. Only in the late eighteenth century did educated observers become sufficiently separated from the common people that they began to record popular customs, rather in the manner that early explorers were systematically documenting foreign cultures. "

We can only imagine the goings on at the site of St Anne’s Well during this period that was the cause of such unruly behaviour, when Rob Trusaw informs us —

"By the late nineteenth century the fairly copious written records reveal that popular customs were again undergoing wide-spread changes. Victorian moral standards disfavoured drunkenness, brawling, and any suggestions of lewdness. And, as court records reveal, the former two were inextricably linked to village festivities, and the latter is frequently alleged by detractors (although parish records of births do not provide evidence for a surfeit of milkmaids defoliated at May tide). There is more than a little to suggest that such holidays were traditionally a time for local lads to visit a neighbouring village, not just for a few beers, but an inevitable punch-up with the 'home team.'"

Nottingham historian Dr Robert Morrell indicates in his own paper published in 'Mercian Mysteries No.21 November 1994,' the customs of pagan practices that occurred at the site of the farmhouse tavern, by the side of St Anne’s Well —

"In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the house at the well site became the centre of activities for what appears on the surface to have been a strange group of Robin Hood devotees known as the Brotherhood of the Chair. The 'rites` of this group involved the use of several relics said to be associated with Robin Hood, which were preserved at the house. Visitors would be seated in Robin Hood's Chair then capped with his iron cap. Secretive features of the rites were hinted at but, if the historian, John Blackner, is to be believed, these consisted of nothing more than the consumption of 'large quantities of Woodward's nut-brown ale. "

It seems strange that the hermitage should still be in use at this time by the monks who held regular religious services, and it seems reasonable to assume that the building was demolished at the time of John Clark's murder in 1741 or soon afterwards, leaving widow Blee's farmhouse intact.

The only excavation work carried out at the location of the actual St Anne’s Well took place when the main house and well were demolished to make way for the Great Northern Railway line. Some bones, a half-crown of the date 1685, and a ring showing 'devices' and a motto' dating from the time of King Henry-IV, were uncovered their.