Skip Navigation
 
 

Welcome to Bedford Borough Council

Home > Community Histories > Linslade > Linslade Holy Well

Linslade Holy Well

Looking from the canal bridge to the site of the holy well on the west bank June 2008
Looking from the canal bridge to the site of the holy well on the west bank June 2008

A supposed holy well existed in Old Linslade in the early Middle Ages. It lay close to the west bank of the modern Grand Union Canal, somewhere near the site of a small modern concrete obelisk marked "water". The site is noted on 25 inches to the mile Ordnance Survey maps.

The first mention of this well is, in fact, at its suppression. Volume 64 published by the Lincoln Record Society Volume in 1969, pages 186 to 187, states that in 1299 Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln, forbade pilgrimages to this well and cited Hugh de Hargrave, Vicar of Linslade, for encouraging a cult in order to benefit from offerings brought by pilgrims.

Site of the Holy Well October 2008
Site of the Holy Well October 2008