46 becket's well, derby. 



at Derby from late Saxon times a cell of Cluniac monks, founded 

 by a Saxon earl, Waltheof, who lived in the early part of the reign 

 of the Conqueror, and by whom he was beheaded in 1074. He 

 dedicated this establishment to St. James.* The building stood 

 at the angle of what is now St. James' Street and the Strand ; at 

 the dissolution of the monasteries it was taken possession of by 

 Henry VHL, and granted, together with other properties, to the 

 Burgesses of Derby, which grant was afterwards confirmed by 

 Queen Mary. It is called in the deed " The free chapel, with all 

 its appurtenances called St. James' chapel," &c. This priory was 

 distant but a stone's throw from the well, so that it seems at first 

 quite reasonable to suppose that these monks would only be too 

 glad to dedicate it to the sainted archbishop, and also build a 

 chapel to his memory not far off. Simpson, indeed, in his " History 

 of Derby," says that such a chapel did exist, but that no traces 

 remained in his time. On going further into the matter, a doubt 

 arises as to whether the monks of St. James had, after all, anything 

 to do with it, because the well is not a natural spring, but is a 

 conduit, supplied by the water of a spring in the Newlands, which, 

 together with Abbey Barns, was a grange belonging to Darley 

 Abbey.t The abbots of Darley were very tenacious of what 

 they thought to be their rights, so they would not be likely to hand 

 over a good thing like a holy well to a convent of alien Cluniac 

 monks. We are obliged, however, to leave the question of 

 possession in doubt, for we have no means of solving it. The 

 abbots of Darley and their monastery, together with Becket's 

 chapel and the Free chapel of St. James', and the monks of Cluny, 

 have all passed away ; but the well remains. For a long time it 

 had come to base uses, and so it might have remained but for the 

 public spirit of Mr. Keys, a member of the Archgeological Society, 

 who has, at his own charges, had it cleared out. He has also 

 restored the conical covering which existed until recent years, but 

 which had fallen into decay and dropped into the well. And in 



Rev. D. P. Davies, Nexv Vietu of Derbyshire (181 1 ), p. 1S9. 

 t Simpson's History of Derby, pp. 186, 308. 



