Notes on a Sketch Survey at The Holy Well, ,

CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 2 3THESKETCHPLOT 4 4 CONCLUSIONS 5 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 5

FIGURE The Holy Well, Rorrington; a sketch plot of features noted on a site visit in June 1996

1 Notes on a Sketch Survey at The Holy Well, Rorrington, Shropshire

1 INTRODUCTION The Holy Well, Rorrington is a natural spring at the northern end of Stapeley Hill in southwest Shropshire (Shropshire Sites and Monument Record no. SA2834; NGR SJ 3158 0009). The site lies in Chirbury civil , 21km southwest of the centre of and about 1.5km east-southeast from the centre of the village of Rorrington.

Concern expressed by a member of the public about recent land drainage affecting the Holy Well prompted a visit to the site in December 1995 by staff from the Archaeology Service. A number of earthwork features were noted in the vicinity of the spring, and a sketch plot was made of these on a return visit to the site in June 1996.

2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND In the later neolithic period and the Bronze Age, Stapeley Hill was the focus of intense ritual and funerary activity. There are stone circles at Mitchell's Fold (SA1230) and Hemford (SA1231), and a number of cairns, barrows, and standing stones. Later prehistoric activity in the area is represented by the nearby Castle Ring hillfort.

At the time of the Domesday Survey of 1086, the manor of Rorrington lay within Wittery Hundred; it later belonged to Chirbury Hundred. In 1086, the manor was held from Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, by Roger and Robert, sons of Corbet, each holding one virgate. Roger's lands formed the barony of Cause, which remained in the Corbet family. Robert's holdings passed via his daughters to the FitzHerberts and the Botterells. The manor contained woodland for 30 pigs and a hedged enclosure. (Thorn, 1986)

Later in the medieval period, the Holy Well spring was associated with a religious cult, possibly a christianisation of an earlier tradition. The well was linked with the Virgin Mary and was a place of pilgrimage; there was a chapel of ease at the site (although there are no visible remains today), administered by the Canons of the church of St Michael, Chirbury. In the 19th century, a bronze mould (SA2672) for the production of figures of the Madonna and Child sold to pilgrims to the Holy Well was found in St. Michael's churchyard. The "Halliwell Wakes" were celebrated on Ascension day at the Holy Well until c.1832. At least five tracks and footpaths converge on the spring, attesting its local importance until relatively recent times.

At the time of the visit to the site in December 1995, the spring was issuing just a trickle of water, whereas it had (apparently) previously been considerably more vigorous. Although there was a considerable quantity of broken rock around the head of the spring, there were no indications of any structural remains around the well head.

During the visit, a holloway was noted nearby at SJ 3160 0029. A feature to one side of the holloway, suggested by a local source as the site of the chapel of ease, was seen to be a small quarry. The remains of a possible deserted settlement (SA 4717) centred on SJ 3176 0019 were also noted about 200 metres to the northeast of the well. These remains consisted of possible building platforms and the ruins of a stone and brick

2 Notes on a Sketch Survey at The Holy Well, Rorrington, Shropshire building. The latter was still shown as a standing structure on the 1954 revision of the OS 1:10,560 map (OS 1:10560 sheet SJ30SW, 1954) along with a number of other small enclosed structures - barns or small cottages - butting onto the northeast side of the a drystone wall running along the Chirbury and Worthen parish boundary.

3 Notes on a Sketch Survey at The Holy Well, Rorrington, Shropshire

3 THE SKETCH PLOT A return visit was made in June 1996 with a view to making a sketch plot of the features noted the previous December and any other associated features. The results, plotted at an original scale of 1:2500, are shown on the accompanying plan.

About 175 metres northeast of the well, a drystone wall ran northwest to southeast along the line of the boundary between Chirbury and Worthen . A cursory inspection of a 300 metres length of this wall did not reveal any worked masonry re- used in its construction, which was largely of Mytton Flag or a similar fine-grained sandstone.

The 40 metres length of holloway at SJ 3160 0029 was seen to be one of a number of variations in the route of a trackway and footpath where it ran up the side of the hill along the southwest face of the boundary wall. This was part of a longer track eventually running between Rorrington and Shelve. A small quarry lies approximately 30 metres to the west of the holloway, and a few metres to the south, a small gulley or ditch runs down the hillside at right-angles from the holloway.

225 metres to the southeast along the trackway were the remains of the possible deserted settlement (SA 4717). The only standing structural remains were those of a small building (see figure, S1), 5.5 metres long by 4.5 metres wide, built of grey stone (?Mytton Flag) bonded in a light grey mortar. The walls were 0.5 metres thick and survived to a height of up to 1.4 metres. The map evidence shows that the structure originally had extended c. 20m to the northeast, and had been contained in a small enclosure c. 20 metres by 35 metres in size and which had a second, smaller structure in its northern corner. The remains of the building were surrounded by a spread of rubble which included fragments of Welsh slate roof tiles, a larger stone roof slate, bricks of 18th- and 19th-century type, and 18th- and 19th-century pottery and glass. This rubble encroached on the northern side of a roughly oval-shaped platform which extended south from the building remains. At the southeastern edge of this platform, just visible in the surface of the turf, were the remains of a further small stone structure (S2 on figure) about 4m across.

A terrace c. 55 metres long by 25 metres wide on the hillside 50 metres to the west may mark the site of another building platform. A third platform, which lies 75m to the south of the first, overlooking the site of a recently infilled pond, is more probably a natural feature.

4 Notes on a Sketch Survey at The Holy Well, Rorrington, Shropshire

4 CONCLUSIONS The structural and artefactual evidence would suggest that the building remains at SJ 3176 0019 are almost certainly those of a late 18th- or early 19th-century domestic building, probably an agricultural worker's cottage, which is shown by the map evidence to have survived as a structure into the middle of this century. The map evidence also shows that this building was part of a small settlement strung along a 500m length of the Worthern side of the Worthern/Chirbury parish boundary. Only the southeasternmost of these, "Sunnybank", and the farm "Hillcrest" are still occupied. There is a possibility that the earthwork platforms may represent the sites of earlier, undocumented buildings.

The numerous footpaths and trackways in the area indicate a much more intense level of human activity in this area. A number of these tracks may well date to the medieval period or even earlier; some were undoubtedly were used by people attending the rituals at the Holy Well.

No remains of the medieval chapel of ease or other structure were seen at the Holy Well itself on either of the visits to the site.

5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Shropshire Sites and Monuments Record Thorn, F and C, (eds), 1996: Domesday Book: Shropshire, Chichester

Abbreviations: AP Aerial Photograph NGR National Grid Reference OS SMR Sites and Monuments Record, Shire Hall, Shrewsbury SRRC Shropshire Records and Research Centre, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society TSAHS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society VCHS Victoria County

5