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Looking through a book on the history of Leighton Buzzard we noticed an article on the Old Linslade Holy Well, complete with a hand-drawn map by Frederick Gurney in 1915 showing the place where he thought the Holy Well was sited. Our interest was piqued because we had previously dowsed there before and we were pretty sure that we had found the site to our satisfaction, but Mr Gurney’s site, according to his map, was very different to ours. (Please see our previous blog dated 18.6.08 for details of that field trip.) His site was on opposite side of the Grand Union Canal and the bridge.
We were very intrigued though, so off we went on a beautiful spring morning to follow in Mr Gurney’s footsteps and re-dowse the area to see if we could agree with his findings. We were careful at all times to keep an open mind and not to prejudice our findings in favour of ourselves. Mr Gurney, as far as we know, was not a dowser, but at a certain spot he had found an Edward III coin (12th Century) and assumed that this had been the site of the Holy Well.
We easily found the spot from his directions on the map. It was very like a pirate treasure map – 40 paces here – 80 paces there etc. The area hadn’t really changed that much but, unfortunately, our dowsing found absolutely nothing. We continued to dowse in different directions but our rods continually pointed back to our original site in the reed beds north of Old Linslade church, the other side of the bridge
The photo at the top of the page (please click to see enlarged photo) shows how far we were from St Mary’s Church, Old Linslade. We are not saying Mr Gurney was wrong, but by using our dowsing rods we think we may bring a more scientific approach to this conundrum. Just because he found an old coin in a certain spot doesn’t mean that the Holy Well must have been there. Old Linslade in the Middle Ages was a thriving community and the coin could have been dropped anywhere.
We still say that we were correct on our first visit (and we are usually right!!).
