A history lover who used Ordnance Survey maps of Oxfordshire from the 1850s as a guide, was left stunned after tracking down two structures dating back thousands of years
A man who spotted an intriguing marking on an Ordnance Survey map from the 1850s was left stunned by what he discovered after tracking down its location. History buff, Chris Gledhill headed to Oxfordshire in search of two destinations marked ‘Spring’ and ‘Physic Well’ that had captured his imagination.
“I love looking at old maps,” he penned in a caption on TikTok alongside a video documenting his exploration. “There is so much cool historical stuff marked on them that you can’t see on the modern Google/Apple Maps.” Chris set out to the countryside, passing thatched-roof cottages dating back to the 14th and 15th century. However, his medieval path would lead him to something much older.
Chris opted find ‘Physic Well’ first, as he explained: “Physic in old English means medicine or healing… these are ancient Pagan holy sites usually about 2,000 years old and sometimes older.”
He continued: “It’s hard to find them today, but they still showed them on the old maps.” Foraging through woodland, Chris eventually stumbled upon the site – a natural pool of water with a manmade stone surround.
“You can see here on the ancient path that someone has made a kind of bathtub shape out of it,” he revealed. “The water would be fed through some kind of underground spring, so it would never dry up.”
After throwing in a penny as an “offering”, Chris continued to the ‘Spring’ site – one he admitted left him feeling “blown away”.
This time he was met with a more sophisticated structure, but no less ancient. “I was expecting just to find another whole in the ground – not something as elaborate as this,” he confessed.
“This site is absolutely amazing… that bit at the back is the old well where the water would have bubbled out of,” Chris noted, pointing out a small surface area amid a large rocky enclosure. “On the right there are steps down into what would have been like a pool of spring water,” he added.
Chris was also stunned by a stone on the surface that had been carved to create a basin-like shape with spouts appearing from the sides. “I’ve no idea what that was for,” he admitted. “It’s mostly dry today, but you can still see at the bottom it’s quite muddy and wet… I reckon after some rain the water will still bubble from the hole.”
Chris closed by expressing his wonder that for “more than 2,000 years, people had used those steps to head down to bathe in the holy waters of the spring, maybe hoping for healing or fertility”.
Writing in response, one TikTok user pondered: “I wonder what it would take to get them up and running again.”
To which historian Chris shared: “I think the water table has been messed with by the local farms tapping the springs for livestock and irrigation. Probably the farms would need to leave alone for a while for them to refill properly to medieval levels.”
With regards to the mystery stone, meanwhile, a second person asked Chris: “Could the rock be for washing clothes or something?”
“My mind was thinking sacrificial stone but yup clothes washing is far more wholesome,” he said in reply.
Whilst a third individual declared: “Wow that’s so interesting! If you cleared the dirt etc do you think the spring would run again?”
Chris answered: “I think the underground water table is a lot lower that it once was, hence it was mostly dry when I visited. I think after prolonged heavy rains the water will well up.”
