Archaeologists in the UK have uncovered a small well that was traditionally used by religious pilgrims, who believed it could wash away their sins and cure various ailments such as poor eyesight. 
 
 The team thinks that the well – which is more like a shallow spring used for bathing – was built to honour Saint Anne, the supposed mother of the Virgin Mary, who had a cult following in Britain during the late Medieval Period (1066-1485 AD). And according to folklore, that well was cursed. 
 
 Researchers from the Historic England Heritage have named the religious site St. Anne’s Well, and it was found buried on a piece of privately owned land near Liverpool. 
 
 Local archaeologists and the owner of the property were aware of the well for some time, but until now, no one had excavated it, and it had only been identified by photographs taken in 1983. 
 
 Now that it's original structure has been uncovered, researchers have been given new insight into when and how the well was used. 
 
 "When we first got to the well we found that there was very little indication of it on the surface, but after excavation, it was found to be in reasonable condition," the team’s supervising archaeologist, Jamie Quartermaine, told Rossella Lorenzi at Seeker. 
 
 "This well was probably a late Medieval foundation as the cult of St. Anne did not become widespread in England until after the end of the 14th century." 
 
 During the time it was constructed, healing wells were all the rage in Britain, and St. Anne was commonly attributed to them – though many other healing wells were built in honour of other saints, too. 
 
 This well in particular would have seen pilgrims stepping into a pool of spring water roughly 1.2 metres (4 feet) deep, where they could wash away sins or attempt to be healed through divine powers. 
 
 The well was thought to be maintained by a priory of 12 local monks that were so successful, they even managed to turn a profit from the land, and the well grew so popular that two of the monks became full-time caretakers of it. 
 
 "The well attracted numbers of pilgrims, necessitating the building of a small three-roomed structure around the well and the custodianship of two of the monks," Quartermaine told Seeker. 
 
 The well’s popularity wasn’t the only thing that made it stand out – legend says it was 'cursed' sometime during the 16th century. 
 
 According to a newspaper report from 1877, the story goes that a neighbouring landowner by the name of Hugh Darcy was upset with the amount of space the well was taking up, prompting a dispute with Father Delwaney, one of the monks who helped run the monastery. 
 
 The feud reached a tipping point when the two were arguing near the well, and Darcy told the monk that he wouldn’t be in business for much longer. 
 
 A few days later, a messenger from the king at the time – most likely Henry VIII, who had a thing for closing monasteries – came to close the facility and well, and an upset Father Delwaney promptly cursed Darcy and told him he would be dead in under a year. 
 
 Moments after the curse was muttered, the legend states that Delwaney fell over dead. 
 
 To be clear, this story is based on nothing more than hearsay, that has probably been exaggerated more and more with each telling. 
 
 But according to the folklore, a series of unfortunate events followed Darcy around for the next year – such as his son dying mysteriously, and his finances taking a turn for the worst. 
 
 Finally, after a night of drinking, Darcy was found at the well with his head smashed in, and no one knows how he managed to suffer such a fate. 
 
 Again, it's just a legend, but it's a good one. 
 
 The researchers suspect that religious pilgrims continued bathing in the well’s waters up until the 19th century, until it was eventually abandoned and ploughed over. 
 
 Now that it's been unearthed, the team plans on adding some wood around the water to ensure that it doesn’t get covered up again or damaged, and will be working with local farmers to ensure the site is maintained. 
 
 The team’s work has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal for verification, so for now, we're taking their word for it that this is the well of St. Anne from the stories. 
 
 But hopefully, after further analysis, the researchers will share the details of their work with the public and the rest of the scientific community. 
 
 And if all goes well with the excavation, one of the most long-lasting holy wells in the UK will be revived, and fingers crossed it's curse-free. ||||| Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email 
 
 A medieval well that was once believed to heal eye diseases and wash away sins has been uncovered in Rainhill . 
 
 After a series of excavation works by Historic England, St Anne’s Well was uncovered at a private farm in the area. 
 
 The historic well was located by looking at a photograph from 1983 which showed it was still visible and by using a description on the National Heritage List which said the well was large, made of sandstone and with steps to the water. 
 
 A local legend suggested St Anne’s Well was associated with a nearby priory, lost during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 
 
 Holy wells were an important part of Christianity in the Middle Ages and St Anne’s Well continued to be revered even after the Dissolution, and by the 19th century it was even thought to cure eye diseases. 
 
 A Historic England spokesman said: “Part of our role at Historic England is to speak up for and champion heritage. ‘Archaeology is just a load of lumps and bumps in a field’ is an oft-defended accusation but in the case of St Anne’s Well, we had to concede the description was fairly apt! 
 
 “Situated in a large field, it had become completely filled with earth due to years of arable ploughing. 
 
 “Just a patch of barren grass and a couple of stones marked its location. It had been on the Heritage at Risk Register since 2010, and was clearly in need of help.” 
 
 Historic England’s Heritage at Risk team commissioned an archaeological investigation to discover what remained. 
 
 After two days of careful excavation, Oxford Archaeology North uncovered the well and at almost 2m x 2m it’s a substantial size. 
 
 Three steps lead down to a pool of water where medieval pilgrims submerged themselves, hoping to benefit from its healing properties. 
 
 Having uncovered the well, the next step for the team was to protect it for the future. 
 
 Stones, which had fallen in to the well, were replaced and a management agreement was set up with the farmer to ensure weeds don’t encroach. 
 
 New wooden edging to the perimeter of the excavation was set up to prevent soil falling in, and to provide a buffer to protect the well from damage by farm machinery. 
 
 The spokesman added: “It can now come off the Heritage at Risk Register. 
 
 “St Anne’s Well is on private land, but the farmer kindly allowed members of Rainhill Civic Society and Merseyside Archaeological Society to visit the newly repaired well with Historic England. 
 
 “The Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Heritage at Risk Projects Officer led a lively group visit of about 20 members and one dog. 
 
 “One member had come to see the well as a boy in the 1950s and hadn’t seen it since. 
 
 “Everyone must have been feeling healthy and sin-free, as nobody tried to take a sneaky healing dip.” ||||| Anastasia Nikolaevna Although no longer missing, the final resting place of Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, was a nearly century-long mystery that ended in 2009. Along the way, false reports, witnesses and impostors claiming to be the deceased grand duchess turned up. The idea that somehow Nikolaevna had escaped execution gripped popular imagination, including an animated film in 1997. In 1991, speculation that Nikolaevna survived the massacre that claimed her family was bolstered by the discovery of a mass grave. Buried there were the remains of the tsar, his wife and three of their daughters. Traces of the two remaining children, a son and another daughter, were not at the site. In 2007, a grave in Yekaterinburg, Russia, proved to be the final resting place of the two remaining children. Two years later, researchers announced that DNA analysis confirmed that the remains were of the two young royals. 
 
 Emperor Jianwen When you're emperor of a nation as large as China, you'd think someone would notice your disappearance. Emperor Jianwen (1377-1402) was the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and nearly led it to ruin. Failed efforts to gain greater control over territory within his empire, which was governed by his uncles, led to the outbreak of civil war. When troops belonging to one of Jianwen's uncles attacked Nanjing, then the capital under the Ming Dynasty, the imperial palace caught fire, supposedly killing Jianwen and his concubines. However, an alternate version of events suggests Jianwen secretly escaped in the midst of the battle and took refuge in a monastery, where he lived out the rest of his days. 
 
 Queen Nefertiti Obscure royals are bound to escape history's notice. But when the ones who really left their mark manage to elude discovery, that's another story entirely. Ancient Egypt's Queen Nefertiti might be the most sought-after royal yet undiscovered. She died over 3,300 years ago, but was made famous in the modern era following the discovery of the 19-inch limestone, painted bust of her, seen here. Nefertiti was, in the words of Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi, "the royal wife of the 'heretic' pharaoh Akhenaton, who initiated a new monotheistic religion that involved the worship the sun god Aton." Despite pursuits to find her tomb, including one such expedition funded by the Discovery Channel, no archaeologist has yet found where Nefertiti is buried. READ MORE: Tracking Nefertiti: Egypt Guide 
 
 Pharaoh Userkare If famous kings who died within the last 1,000 years are difficult to find, then an obscure pharaoh that lived some 4,300 years ago must be close to impossible. The reign of Userkare, the second pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, has been shrouded in mystery, partly due to the fact that his tomb had not been discovered. In 2010, Giulio Magli, professor of archaeoastronomy at Milan's Polytechnic University, suggested a possible final resting place for the pharaoh. as reported by Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi. The search, however, is still ongoing. WATCH VIDEO: Find out what it's like hunting down ancient Egyptian treasures. 
 
 Henry I When Henry VIII was engaged in his campaign against Catholicism, he seized church lands and raided monasteries. In the process, his men disturbed and even destroyed the final resting places of the monarchs who came before him. In fact, Henry VIII even likely caused the destruction of the tomb of his namesake: Henry I. Henry I was the son of William the Conqueror, and reigned for nearly 30 years from 1106 to 1135. Although he crowned himself king in 1100, his reign was disputed by his older brother, Robert, who had been away fighting in the Crusades. Henry initially was able to buy Robert off, but the two later came into conflict again, which was only resolved in 1106 with Henry's army capturing Robert in battle and imprisoning him for life. Henry spent much of his time away from England, often frequenting Normandy. In order to rule in his absence, he created a bureaucracy that would efficiently govern and run the affairs of state, the most important duty of which was to collect taxes. Following the death of his son, Henry was left with only one legitimate heir, his daughter. When Henry died in 1135, his daughter's rule was rejected by the English nobility and civil war ensued. 
 
 Harold II Even though Harold II might have had one of the most famous deaths of any monarch in English history, his final resting place is unknown. Harold II assumed the throne in 1066. That same year, William the Conqueror led an army of Norman invaders into England. The armies of William and Harold met at the Battle of Hastings in October. After hours of fighting, with victory within his grasp, Harold was, according to legend, either shot in the eye or stabbed with a sword. His body was then mutilated and dismembered. Although the site of Harold's death is known, what followed after is a matter of some speculation. According to popular accounts, William had Harold's body buried in secret, even though Harold's mother offered a sum to claim the body. 
 
 Edward V and Richard, Duke of York Before Richard III assumed the throne, there was only one person standing in his way: his nephew, Edward V. Only a boy at 12 years old, Edward V was unprepared for the responsibilities of the crown left to him by his father, Edward IV, who entrusted Richard as Protector until the boy came of age. The future king Richard III in short order imprisoned Edward V in the Tower of London, along with his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York. The uncle then declared Edward IV's marriage invalid, and therefore his heirs were illegitimate. Richard III assumed the throne and the two boys disappeared from history shortly thereafter. Although remains belonging to two children were discovered in the 17th century by workers renovating a section of the Tower, the bones were never conclusively identified as belonging to the two boys. 
 
 The remains of Richard III, the monarch immortalized as a villainous hunchback by William Shakespeare and the last English king to die in battle, might have been discovered in a parking lot in Leicester. DNA analysis is still needed to confirm the findings, and that could take up to 12 weeks, according to researchers at the University of Leicester. While we wait, let's look at other royals known to have vanished from history. NEWS: Medieval Church Discovered Beneath Parking Lot 
 
 A four-year study has dramatically rewritten the history of Glastonbury Abbey, said to be the burial place of the legendary King Arthur and the site of the earliest Christian church in Britain. 
 
 King Arthur’s grave, allegedly found by monks in 1181, is nothing but a pit filled with rubble, say the researchers. And the church was not founded by Jesus’s disciples in the first century A.D., but was built by medieval monks to raise cash. 
 
 Faced with a financial crisis when their abbey was destroyed in a fire in 1184, the creative monks rebuilt the abbey to look older and mystical. To draw on Arthurian legends, they even crafted a fake burial cross with the name of the king. 
 
 “The monks needed to raise money by increasing the numbers of visiting pilgrims – and that meant keeping the myths and legends alive,” team leader Roberta Gilchrist, professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading, UK, said. 
 
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 Gilchrist and colleagues reexamined and reinterpreted all known archaeological records from excavations at the site between 1904 and 1979, none of which have ever been published. 
 
 “Dig directors were led heavily by Glastonbury’s legends and the occult. Using 21st century technology we took a step back from the myth and legend to expose the true history of the Abbey,” Gilchrist said. 
 
 Her team carried out chemical and compositional analysis of glass, metal, and pottery artifacts held in the Glastonbury Abbey Museum, and undertook a new geophysical survey of the Abbey grounds. 
 
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 They also reexamined the work of British archaeologist Ralegh Radford who excavated the site in the 1950s and ’60s. 
 
 Radford claimed to have discovered a Christian British cemetery, a Saxon cloister that was believed to be the earliest in England, as well as the location of King Arthur’s grave, allegedly discovered by the Glastonbury monks. 
 
 But Gilchrist’s analysis disputes his finding. Foundations revealed the walls do not line up and are unlikely to be those of a cloister, and the graves Radford dated to be “Dark Age” in fact date to later than the Saxon church and cemetery. 
 
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 Moreover, the site of Arthur’s tomb turned to be a pit in the cemetery containing material dating from the 11th to 15th centuries, with no evidence linking it to the era of the legendary king. 
 
 “It’s likely the judgement of excavators like Radford was clouded by the Abbey myths. They were also less critical of historical sources than we are today and did not have the luxury of 21st century technology,” Gilchrist said. 
 
 Further analysis has also showed how the monks crafted the early Christian tales to restore the Abbey to its former glory after the devastating fire. 
 
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 “We found evidence that the monks laid out the buildings in a very distinctive way to emphasize the ‘earliest church’ story,” Gilchrist said. 
 
 She noted the monks deliberately designed the church to look older in order to validate its ancient heritage and preeminent place in monastic history. 
 
 “They used archaic architecture style and reused material to emphasize the Abbey’s mythical feel. This swelled pilgrim numbers – and the Abbey’s coffers,” Gilchrist said. 
 
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 Indeed, the monks’ strategy paid off. Glastonbury Abbey became the second richest monastery in England by the end of the Middle Ages. 
 
 “Re-examination of the archaeological records revealed the exceptional scale of the abbot’s lodging, a luxurious palatial complex to the southwest of the cloister,” Gilchrist said. 
 
 But it’s not all bad news for Glastonbury Abbey. 
 
 The study found evidence the site was occupied 200 years earlier than previously estimated and housed an important complex of five glass furnaces radiocarbon dated to about AD 700. 
 
 “This represents the earliest and most substantial evidence for glass-working in Saxon England,” Gilchrist said.
– In medieval times, pilgrims flocked to England in quest of St. Anne's Well, which was said to cure ailments and wash away sins. Archaeologists now say they've rediscovered that large sandstone well on a private farm near Liverpool using only a 1983 photo and a description, reports the Liverpool Echo. When archaeologists arrived at the site, there was little evidence of the well at all as "it had become completely filled with earth," says a rep for Historic England. Once excavated, however, it was "found to be in reasonable condition," per an archaeologist. Legend has it that the supposed mother of the Virgin Mary herself descended the medieval well's three steps and bathed in its 4-foot-deep pool, located near a priory of monks, reportedly giving the water the ability to cure eye and skin diseases, per Seeker and ScienceAlert. But the well—believed to have healing properties into the 19th century—also features in a more ominous legend suggesting it's cursed. During a dispute over the well in the 16th century, the prior reportedly cursed the estate manager of a neighboring landowner, whom he believed had a hand in the monastery being seized by the king. The prior said a "year and a day shall not pass ere St. Anne thy head shall bruise"—then the prior himself collapsed and died, according to an 1877 newspaper recounting of the legend. The estate manager is said to have disappeared after a night of drinking, only to be found dead in the well with "his head crushed in." ScienceAlert points out the discovery has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. (These ancient Greek tablets also told of a curse.)