Clitheroe Town Wells Conservation campaign group to hold public meeting to protect Anglo-Saxon sites

Stock Well, Heald Well and St Mary’s Well – all Grade II Listed – are the oldest occupied sites in the ancient borough of Clitheroe or ‘Clyderhowe’. These Anglo-Saxon sites pre-date Clitheroe Castle (Scheduled Monument and Grade I listed) and St Mary’s Parish Church (Grade II listed).

Clitheroe Town Wells Conservation Campaign (CTWCC) state the two current ‘sticking points’ to achieving this goal of securing a future for the wells are:

Ribble Valley Borough Council’s reluctance to accept their established municipal and legal responsibility to adopt Heald and St Mary’s Wells, in a similar manner as they have already done for Stock Well; and,

Convincing RVBC that all three sites are valuable Community Heritage Assets and not Liabilities.

Group secretary Steve Burke said: “The significance of ‘adoption’ is that, without registered title none of the necessary investigation, repair, conservation and on-site interpretation work can commence on the Listed Grade II sites. This current unacceptable status, if accepted, will effectively condemn them to an unjustified and unworthy dilapidation.

“Clitheroe town councillors have recently met with RVBC officers and councillors to press this case, on behalf of CTWCC. We understand this remains ‘under consideration’ though this has been the case since 2019, when only Stock Well was adopted.”

CTWCC’s confidence in their claim as to RVBC’s Civic and Legal duty to secure titles for all three sites is based on their extensive research into the council’s previous maintenance of all sites – ceased for unspecified reasons in 2016 – along with legal opinion.

The group is working with UCLan’s Post Graduate Department of Building Conservation. Two post-grad students are conducting full surveys of the wells and reviewing their existing Heritage Assessments and Statements. These will assist in the eventual application for Grant Aid, a comprehensive conservation project for all sites and an attempt to raise the Listed Building status.

CTWCC is holding a public meeting on Saturday, January 25th, at the Moot Hall, Church Street, Clitheroe, at 11am with an update and presentation of the campaign’s aims and progress. This will ‘illustrate the importance of all three sites to this ancient borough - and their retention and promotion as significant Heritage and Community assets.”