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Summary

A small unroofed rectangular structure with walls of large unworked stone up to 1.2m.

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument CO804: St Levan's Well, Porth Chapel
• Listed Building (II) 69769: HOLY WELL OF SAINT LEVAN

Other References/Statuses

• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW32SE 29.1
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 28303
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW32SE 49

Monument Type(s):

• HOLY WELL (Early Medieval to Medieval - 410 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

In 1878, WC Borlase described St Levan's Well as a structure 1.5m square and 2.1m high with a stone roof, built on a large flat stone below which is a spring. He mentions that in Dr Borlase's time it was connected to St Levan's Chapel (28304), on the cliff edge below the well to the south-east, by a pathway of steps "shaped with stone" (b1). Henderson records the structure with walls up to 0.9m high, roofless, with an entrance on the south side.
Originally the well filled the whole interior but it has been covered over and the water now rises outside the building. No traces of any carved stones could be seen (b5). The OS surveyed the site at 1:2500 in 1960 and described it as a small unroofed rectangular structure built on a foundation of a single large granite slab, with walls of large unworked stone which have a maximum height of 1.2m. The north wall is continued to the east for 1.4m beyond the building line and the entrance is on the the east side, where the water issues from beneath the foundation slab. The steps down to St Levan's Chapel are very shallow, each being approx 0.2m high and 0.4m wide, in poor condition and incomplete. The well is listed by Russell (1971) who records the extant remains of a holy well. The site was scheduled in 1972 and in 1980 Sheppard noted that the stonework has been heavily cemented together so that almost half of the walling is covered (b10). In 1983 he reported that the cement had weathered and that lichen had begun to colonise it. A small stone had been prised from the top but otherwise the structure was firm (b12).

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Site history:
1: 1960. PITCHER, GH / OS
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Preston-Jones, A, 2001, St Levan's Well (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1825.

<1> Borlase, W, 1740, Parochial Memoranda, 4 (Unpublished document). SCO2884.

<2> Borlase, WC, 1878, The Age of Saints: a Monograph of Early Christianity in Cornwall, 50-51 (Article in Journal). SCO2893.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1900s, 2nd Edition 6 Inch Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4051.

<4> Henderson, C, 1914, Notebooks of Parochial Antiquities, 306 (Unpublished document). SCO3503.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1970s, 1:10,000 OS Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4045.

<7> Pevsner, N, 1951, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, 186 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4126.

<8> Lane-Davies, A, 1970, Holy Wells of Cornwall, 68, 96 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3814.

<9> Russell, V, 1971, West Penwith Survey, 75 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4314.

<10> Sheppard, PA (for DOE), 19--, Scheduled Monument Description (Bibliographic reference). SCO5181.

<11> Meyrick, J, 1982, A Pilgrims Guide to the Holy Wells of Cornwall, 79-80 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3936.

<12> Sheppard, PA (for DOE), 19--, Scheduled Monument Description (Bibliographic reference). SCO5181.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO647 - SM Management: St Levan's Well
• ECO6151 - Ancient Penwith Site Assessment Form
• ECO6165 - Ancient Penwith: an archaeological assessment of sites in West Penwith for the PLP (Ref: 2016R069)

Related records: none recorded

Associated Images

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