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   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.” ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was: 
   
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   - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| 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.
target: – 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.)