The Pikeing Well, occasionally known as Lady Well, is a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

in the city of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, in England. The well lies on New Walk, which runs along the east bank of the

River Ouse, Yorkshire The River Ouse ( ) is a river in North Yorkshire, England. Hydrologically, the river is a continuation of the River Ure, and the combined length of the River Ure and River Ouse makes it, at , the longest rivers of the United Kingdom, sixth-lon ...

, running south from the city centre. The walk was laid out in the 1730s, as an attraction for visitors to the city. By the 1750s, mineral water spas were popular places to visit. York did not have mineral water springs, so the city council instead decided to commission a decorative

wellhead A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...

over an existing well. It claimed that the water was useful for healing illness related to the eye. The wellhead was designed by John Carr, its form inspired by

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

s. He reused Mediaeval stonework, which is sometimes said to have come from the chancel of

All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania * All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Brisbane, Queensland *All ...

, but must have come from another source, as the chancel was not demolished until 1782. The commission was for £88 13 shillings, but Carr's fee was reduced by £25 in exchange for granting him the Freedom of the City. The building is small and rectangular, with a semicircular niche at the rear, and a round-headed door facing the river. It is built of a mixture of limestone and sandstone. There is a parapet, which incorporates a broken 12th-century capital. There is a barrel roof, now covered in asphalt. Inside, the floor is covered in flagstones, and in the centre is a stone-lined pool, with steps down to it. The well was closed by the Ministry of Health in 1929, at which time, an iron gate was placed over the pool. The building was

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1954, and it was restored in 2000.{{cite web , title=Pikeing Well , url=https://openplaques.org/plaques/51493 , website=Open Plaques , access-date=22 December 2023

References

Buildings and structures completed in 1752 Grade II* listed buildings in York John Carr (architect) buildings Water wells in England

See also

References