St Frideswide and the ‘treacle well’
Monday October 19, is the feast day of St Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. And so I decide to cycle to Binsey, a tiny hamlet of houses to the north west of the city. Though some might know it as the setting for Gerald Manley Hopkin’s famous lament, ‘Binsey Poplars’, this is also where in the 7th century, according to legend, Frideswide, a Christian noble woman, fled to escape the unwanted advances of the Mercian prince, Algar. Algar follows in hot pursuit with soldiers and dogs to hunt her down. But when he is struck blind by a thunderbolt as if from heaven, the godly Frideswide takes pity on him, and her prayers bring forth a healing spring, whose curative waters restore his sight. 1400 years later and the well still remains where it first bubbled up, now commonly known as ‘the treacle well’, for reasons I hope to explain.
