To quote from the guide to St Laurence's Church:
"Long before Christianity ever came to England our forebears showed their reverence for water and it is not hard to imagine the awe in which they would have held the powerful, silent surge that we later came to know as 'Upwey's Wishing Well"
"How natural, then, that in pagan times the whole area would have been thought holy and that, with the coming of Christianity ... a chapel should have been built on it."
Regular readers should note that the 'Upwey Wishing Well' and the nearby St Laurence's Church are definitely reachable on foot from the nearby railway station. I've made this point because a number of places documented on this site require a car or several changes of bus. When I criticised Paul Devereaux' walk of the Dorset Cursus I received emails pointing out that my tour of the Deverill Churches was worse. I worked out a way to do that trip safely by public transport, but it's not easy going and is much simpler by car.
The Upwey Wishing Well is different. Okay, it's not just round the corner but even with my arthritis I took about half an hour each way. Given that on a summer Saturday I was easily outpacing the traffic visiting on foot may be the better option. Trains from Southampton arrive at Upwey at five past the hour on Saturdays and return at ten to the hour, very convenient given the length of the walk. Turn right out of the station, down the hill and left at the T-junction to the lights. This first section of the walk is unprepossessing but the end result is worthwhile. Upwey station isn't in Upwey, it's in Broadwey and in fact used to be called Upwey and Broadwey. When you turn right at the lights onto the main Dorchester Road, you enter Upwey.
Cross the road, walk uphill to Stottingway Street and turn left (the well is signed). Within a hundred yards the bustle is left behind and a sense of “small village” prevails, although the occasional cars do tend to move quite fast. Now it's just a case of following the road past the Riverhouse Inn and on up to the well and the church. It's all metalled surface and it should be do-able even for those who walk with sticks, but there is one section without a footpath and given the traffic I'd suggest caution.
The well is now a 'wishing-well' and has been for at least a hundred years, but the Saxon root of the parish name of Elwell (Helewill in 1212) means 'healing' or 'oracular' and certainly local tradition settles for 'healing'. King George III sometimes visited the well to take the waters during his stays in nearby Weymouth and provided a gold cup, which was kept in the village. Local custom has it that this was later given to Royal Ascot as a trophy.
Although there are only a limited number of 'wishing' mechanisms for wells, the legend here is remarkably similar to that at nearby Cerne. A hundred years ago the well was in “English's Wishing Well Tea Gardens” and my suspicion is that Mr English concocted the wishing well bit to boost his trade, thus sadly erasing what might have been a rather more interesting legend.
However, it was soon a popular attraction and two elderly ladies from the village were appointed to hand out glasses and tell people the 'right' way to make a wish - presumably for tips. A stone shelter was added in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, King George and in 1923 the Prince of Wales (later briefly King Edward VIII) visited the well.
Access to the well is via the Wishing Well Tea Rooms: +44 (0)1305 814470, open 10 to 5 every day April to August, Tuesday to Sunday out of season. There's a regular well-dressing during May and early June The gardens are worth a look and the various beds mean that the well itself remains relatively secluded. Despite the bustle I got a little time to myself there to appreciate the 'powerful, silent surge', source of the River Wey. Yes, my wish came true and no, I'm not telling.
The tea-rooms have a well presented selection of photographs of the history of the well and of previous well-dressings, as well as the usual light-hearted kitsch. Perhaps more importantly they do excellent food, from sandwiches and cream teas to full meals – the daily specials included an excellent Homity Pie. The pot of tea for one also provided more than even I could manage.
Thus fortified, it remains to see the other element of the context of the well. St Laurence's Church is well worth a visit, particularly for its wall-paintings, which include Tudor Roses painted on the arches of the arcade and dating from the late fifteenth century. The connection between the well and the church is being maintained, with the owners of the tea-rooms helping to raise money for the restoration of the roses.
Walking back to the station, the Riverhouse Inn, formerly the Mason's Arms: +44 (0)1305 812750 is a small, welcoming pub-restaurant with a variety of good food, with specials majoring on seafood and home-made ice-cream. Again refreshed, enjoy the walk back along the B3159 to the Dorchester Road before re-entering the busy traffic.
I couldn't afford to miss the train back because I was playing for morris in the evening, so I allowed plenty of time. I can thus vouch for the fact that the New Inn, under the railway bridge in a little island of buildings that used to form the centre of Broadwey Village but are now surrounded by a sea of new bungalows, is rather more hospitable than the station platform. A pleasant finish to a very good walk.