St John's Well
St John's Well is a spa water well in Harrogate, a town in North Yorkshire, in England.
The well was discovered in about 1631 by Dr Michael Stanhope, who wrote about it in Cures without Care. It was the second to be identified in the area, after the Tewit Well.[1] It was initially known as the "Old Spaw", and later as the "Sweet Spa". A toilet block was constructed by 1656, then a wellhead was built in 1788 by Alexander Wedderburn.[2] In about 1842, this was replaced by a new wellhead, designed by Isaac Shutt.[3] The well closed in 1973.[2] The wellhead has been grade II* listed since 1949.[4]
The wellhead is a pavilion in gritstone, with pilasters, a cornice and a pierced parapet. There is an octagonal plan, with three windows and a doorway alternating with plain panelled sides. The doorway and the windows are round-arched with an architrave and a pediment, the doorway pediment on console brackets.[4][5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]
- ^ Hembry, Phyllis May (1990). The English Spa, 1560-1815. Athlone Press. ISBN 9780838633915.
- ^ a b Chrystal, Paul; Crossley, Simon (2011). Harrogate Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445628554.
- ^ Hembry, Phyllis May (1997). British Spas from 1815 to the Present. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 9780838637487.
- ^ a b Historic England. "St John's Well (1281537)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
- ^ Leach, Peter; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009), Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12665-5