The Running Well - Beyond the Point

The Running Well is truly a curious and neglected place of local heritage. It is also referred to as Our Lady’s Well with holy associations, and is said to be ancient in origin despite first being recorded in 1768 in Philip Morant’s History and Antiquities of Essex, where he suggests it is where the village of Runwell got its name from. There are lots of theories and speculation about the Running Well, but only a little of this can actually be certified, adding to the mystery surrounding this inherently quite mystical place.

The well is situated approximately 140m south-east of Poplar’s Farm, in the north-east corner of a field immediately south of the equestrian centre south of Warren Road. Like many springs in Essex, the water flows from a junction between Bagshot Sand (beneath the topsoil) and Claygate Beds (beneath the sand) in the area’s geology.

As of 2026, it lies in an overgrown copse beyond the field edge with nothing external to suggest its presence. A few small trees and bushes surround the well, comprising a large pool in the ground with a flat bottom – perhaps 10m in its diameter. The eastern end of the pool forms the original basin of the spring and could be perhaps 2-3m deep. The western shallower end of the pool is partially surfaced with concrete with some ruined steps leading down to it from its north side. This concrete enclosure is believed to have been added in the early-mid twentieth century; potentially around the 1930s, and is in a poor state today. Visually, it looks as though it may have been installed as a kind of spa bath, although this is merely speculation. The spring leads off west along a drain, which then turns south and runs downhill along the field boundary.

We know that the Running Well is a natural spring, but the mystery of its historical usage and significance in the Essex landscape is difficult to trace, given that it was not written about until 1768. It can be reasonably assumed that its name derives from the fact the well is always running, given that it is a natural spring. However, Eilert Ekwall; who wrote The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names in 1936, suggested that the prefix in the name might instead originate from ‘rune’, relating to its mystical connotations and possibly an ancient significance. The village of Runwell was noted in the Domesday book c.940 as ‘Runewell’, further muddying the waters so to speak. Whatever its story, the Running Well has naturally been present for thousands of years, and no doubt would have been used by civilisations as a source of fresh water. Given that water had a supernatural significance in ancient history, it is possible the Running Well’s legacy is nothing modern.

The Running Well is also often said to have been of religious importance. In 1940, Bazille-Corbin writes that in the sixth century, Christian missionaries Lucus and Lucilus visited Essex and built a chapel nearby, dedicating the well to Our Lady St. Mary. Around it, a nunnery of six members emerged to attend to the shrine and well. It is not known if this story of the presence of the chapel and nunnery is even factual, although if it was, it is believed to have been dissolved by the sixteenth century and incorporated into The Poplars farm. No records have been found of this local priory.