HAMPSTON'S WELL
Hampston's Well is on the left hand side of Station Road, as you leave the village of Burton in the Wirral. It's a wooded, pleasant place, and nicely looked after. It must have been the public water supply for the village for many centuries, a utilitarian well rather than a holy one. It wasn't always as it appears now: a photograph from early in last century shows a much larger, open pond with a cow standing in it. There are two signs at the entrance from the road which tell the story, which I reproduce here:
"HAMPSTON'S WELL
This well or spring possibly served iron age settlements at Burton Point and the Anglo-Saxon settlement or Burton about 900 AD. The earliest known written records are dated 1602/1603 in the Manor Court Book where it is referred to as Patrick's Well., located on one side of the common land bounded by the mill, Denna Lane and the shore. There are frequent references in the records of the Manor Court concerning its upkeep. The constables of Burton were charged with cleaning the well each year and all able-bodied men of Burton were required to help under pain of a fine of six pence. The Court also passed bye-laws raising funds for its maintenance from the villagers, and prohibiting washing of clothes at the well or turning well water out of its course. By the nineteenth century it had become known as Hampston's Well after a family who had lived in Burton since the sixteenth century.
The remains of this well were restored and the
garden made in 1975 by Ellesmere Port Borough Council as a tribute to the
memory of Councillor Horace Edgar Green, who died on the 15th September
1973 aged 86 years, having served this community faithfully and well as
a councillor of Neston Urban District Council for twenty-eight years; Chairman
of the Council 1947 to 1949."
LOCATION: SJ 310742
January 1st 2007