Dalston Holy Well

According to The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England by Robert Charles Hope (1893),’The Holy Well near Dalston is very interesting, and had some connection with Carlisle. It is situated in the Shawk quarries, about two miles west of the village. These quarries supplied the white freestone for building Christ Church, Carlisle, and were supposed to have been opened in Roman times for materials to build the portion of the Great Wall west of Carlisle. The Holy Well, still called Helly Well, springs out of the limestone rock. It was remarkable for the religious rites formerly performed around it on certain Sundays by the villagers in the neighbourhood. The good spirit of the well was sought out and supposed to teach its votaries the virtues of temperance, health, cleanliness, simplicity, and love. Worse customs we might have, but few, if any, persons nowadays seek its blessings, and the old faith in its powers has died out. Not far from this well at the written rocks of Shawkbeck is Tom Smith’s Leap, so called from a legend of some mosstrooper who, when pursued with hottrod, jumped down and was killed rather than fall into the hands of justice.’