Thursday 15th February, 6.00pm, The Hypatia Trust, Chapel Street

Join us for a talk by Guy English on his book Holy Wells Cornwall: Odyssey and Memorial written and researched in collaboration with his late wife Catharine.

“This is a story of searching for Cornwall’s Holy Wells, first in chance encounters, then by turns curiously, obsessively, finally doggedly. For five years my late wife Catharine and I scoured the county, following the previous authors, but also checking maps, streams, apparently pointless footpaths, and in the process we found more than twenty wells not previously recorded.

This isn’t a scholarly work - it could hardly be dry - but a day by day description of our progress, in Catharine’s words written at the time. The detail, the history and story of each well and saint have been covered before us. It IS an illustrated description of the state of each well when we visited - if found at all - but we have repeated some of the more dramatic stories too.

Our hope is the book will encourage others to seek these wells. Some are special for beauty, for remoteness, for the spiritual sense that many recognise, or for the stories which have accreted over time. At the very least, there are some good walks, and the discovery of parts of Cornwall not to be missed.

To that end, there is a table of all the wells we know of, giving a reference to each of eight previous books, and giving a map reference based on GPS if we found it. Eighteen wells are not in any other book.

But this is also a story of our partnership, and something of a memorial, being one part of the huge legacy of art and poetry left by my wife of fifty years. To that end, after the hiatus of loss and Covid, I have continued with friends, and this year with the invaluable collaboration of author and photographer Phil Cope, to complete  the work.

If this encourages others to explore these living relics of Cornwall’s past, may that enrich you as it did us.”

There will be a donation bar.