Guardando S attraverso l'ingresso della Madron Well Chapel, Cornwall, Inghilterra, Regno Unito, alla camera del pozzo (battistero) nell'angolo sud-occidentale decorato con nuvole
3802 x 5010 px | 32,2 x 42,4 cm | 12,7 x 16,7 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
22 aprile 2002
Ubicazione:
Madron Well Chapel, Boswarthen, Madron, Penzance, Cornwall, England, UK
Altre informazioni:
Looking S through the entrance of Madron Well Chapel, Cornwall, England, UK, to the well chamber (baptistery) in the SW corner decorated with clouties. The existing masonry is mainly C12th with pre-Norman foundationst & lower courses. Recorded in 1203 as Sanctus Madernus, a well with a chapel built over it. Described in the 1590s as having healing powers & much resorted to by pilgrims. C17th reports say even after the Reformation regular visits were made at Corpus Christi in May or June, & on St Maddern's Day 17 May. The famous & spectacular cure of local cripple John Trelille, who regained the use of his legs after three visits to the well chapel - praying, washing & sleeping - took place around 1638-40. The chapel was damaged by Puritan soldiers in 1646, then described as roofless in 1652, but visits & cures continued. John Wesley preached here in 1760 & the chapel was regularly used by Wesleyans throughout the 18th & 19th centuries. Services are still held here in May & baptisms take place. Water from the well spring SW of the chapel runs through the font pool. The well has long been used for divination & healing, being considered particularly good for curing babies of skin complaints. St Maddern's bed, a bank of turf formerly constructed just N of the stone altar at the E end, was used for sacred healing sleep in conjunction with prayer & full body washing. The clouties, clouts or rags are left as votive offerings: the original pre-plastic idea was that as a cloth, which had been used to wrap or wash an ailing part of the body, rotted away so would the condition be relieved.
