Northumberland | Oxfordshire
BY a custom, time beyond memory, the mayor and aldermen of Nottingham, with their wives, have been accustomed on Monday in Easter week, morning prayer ended, to march from the town to St. Anne's Well, anciently called Robin Hood's Well, having the town waits to play before them, and attended by all the clothing, i.e., such as have been sheriffs, and ever after wear scarlet gowns, together with the officers of the town and many other burgesses and gentlemen, such as wish well to the woodward--this meeting being instituted, and since continued for his benefit.--Deering's H. of Nottingham, p. 125.
There is near Newark a well known as St. Catharine's, which was formerly very celebrated. It is situate near the earthwork called the Queen's Sconce, and the legend is, shortly, that a certain Sir Guy Saucimer, having in a fit of jealousy slain his rival, Sir Everard Bevercotes, a spring of water flowed from the spot where the murdered knight's head fell, in which Sir Guy was subsequently healed from the leprosy which befell him as a punishment for his crime. A chapel was built over the well, and dedicated to St. Catharine. This has since disappeared.
This well was formerly in the possession of my great-grandfather, who bought the site, on account of the extraordinary purity of the water, and established a linen manufactory there. The well still yields a copious supply of the purest water, and my father remembers that when he was a boy people from the town would send for the water on account of its quality.--W. J. SCALES in Antiquary.