Bede's Well

This well was listed Grade II in 1949 with the following description:
'Well. First reference in Brand History of Newcastle (1789) Vol II, p 45n; present brick wall built 1981. Cleaning revealed a rectangular, stepped stone enclosure. Local tradition associates the well with the Venerable Bede. Source: Archaeologia Aeliana, series 2, vol VIII (1880) pp 76-77; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, series 4, vol IX (1943) p 82.'
Brand (1) associated the well with Bede, and said it was customary as late as 1740 to dip diseased children in the well in the hope they would be restored to health. It was also the centre of celebrations on Midsummer Eve. He implied that both activities had ceased long before his book was published.
While most subsequent authors have repeated Brand, usually verbatim, James Wood of Lincoln's Inn wrote to the clerk to Monkton Parish Council (8) suggesting the well had nothing to do with Bede, but was a wishing well or "bedes-well" (bed=prayer). a type known from pre-Conquest documentary sources.
In the early19th century Cuthbert Ellison of Hebburn Hall placed a Latin inscription over (or round) the well, and this has now been renewed. From the late19th century until recently it was in danger of burial from tipping of slag, and in the early 20th century it was surrounded by a brick wall and iron railings in an attempt to protect it.