Hampshire | Hertfordshire
THERE is a well in the church of Marden, Herefordshire. It is near the west end of the nave, defended by circular stone-work, about ten inches in diameter, and enclosing a spring, supposed to arise from the spot in which the body of King Ethelbert was first interred, and is called St. Ethelbert's Well (Notes and Queries, 3 S., viii. 235).
Tradition has it that a fish was once caught in the river Dore, with a golden chain round its body, which was afterwards kept in the Golden Well, from whence the river rises.
Let into the south wall of the nave of the church is a sculptured stone painted, said to have been copied from an older one, representing a fish having a golden chain hanging from its mouth.
The term 'Golden,' as applied to the valley in which Peterchurch is
situate, and also, perhaps, to the well, is no doubt a Norman corruption of
the British word dwr = water. The Golden or Gilden Vale of Camden and
others, is the valley of the Dwr, or, as the stream is now often
pronounced, Doyer, i.e., water.
--H.W. Phillott, Hereford.