There are many holy wells in Cornwall – I have been lucky enough to visit quite a few. For no particular reason, I hadn’t visited St Neot Holy Well despite it being quite close to home.
On Sunday afternoon, after a lovely couple of hours on the grass at Penhale Pantry listening to music and enjoying the sun, we stopped in to St Neot on the way home.
The holy well was built in the 9th century. To a New Zealander, it’s quite hard to get my head around evidence surviving of civilisation from that long ago.
It’s a lovely, peaceful spot. The water level wasn’t high, but very atmospheric all the same.
“Legend has it that an angel told Saint Neot there would always be three fish for him in this well, provided he only took one a day to eat. But when he was ill in bed his servant, Barius, took and cooked two. When Saint Neot found out, he prayed for forgiveness. Barius returned the fish to the well, whereupon they miraculously came back to life.”
