SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Has anyone looked at whether the spring that is the Sugar Well at meanwood is still around?i ask because I am not aware that anyone has reported on the state of the area since Val Shepherd mentioned it in her 2002 book !Holy Wells of Yorkshire and the Dales"

been a while since I posted on this thread but I am still interested in knowing whether the Sugar Well spring on Sugar Well Hill is still flowing?I intend to take my pagan meetup group there sometime to have a look for it.it should be somewhere on the hill itself.    

Don't know about the Sugarwell spring Steve. But i do know the Slabbering baby has been cleaned up over the winter. I have a pic of it herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/4575867097/

This is a transcript of an entry in ''Annals of Leeds and District'' 1831The following springs are noticed in Magna Britannia (1733)St Peters Spring - intensely cold but beneficial to such as are troubled with rheumatism , rickets etc - (where was this ?)Eye Bright Well - near the Monk Pits celebrated as a cure for sore eyes - (presumably near Kirkstall Abbey)High Dam - (where this ?) whose water by the powder of galls will turn into a purple colour (?)Spaw on Quarry Hill - which surpasses all the rest being a panacea and the Ducking Stool for the cure of scolds being near it.

Hi DobboSt Peters Spring was on Quarry Hill. it is referenced in Thoresby's leodensis as he used it.The Eyebright Well was approximately where the old great northern Hotal, later The Wellesley and now a block or apartments is. the well was in a close at the back.High dam might be the well on Woodhouse moor referred to in other documents.

I went up to Sugarwell hill Park yesterday to try and find the source of the Sugar Well.sadly we didn't succeed due to the amount of vegetation.The watercourse runs down the side of Meanwood Valley urban farm into a culvert then meanwood Beck.I have tried looking on the 1905 OS maps (Godfrey Edition) to see where the Sugar Well was but it is not named even though it was a "rag well" and healing well for centuries.Anyone got the 1890 or 1850 maps that cover the area?I have the leeds Indexers 1850 map disc but it doesn't go out that far.the well would be just to the left of where the model farm is on the 1905 edition I think.

My father, who was born in the early 1920's, came from Adel. When I was a child he told me that it was popular on Sundays for people to go for walks in Adel woods to see the drinking fountain and that the fountain was known to everyone as "Slavvering Sal."

just reviving this in light of people wanting to know about the Slavering Baby well at Adel Woods.

This is a photo of the Slabbering Baby spring that I took on May 3rd 2011. It shows that the water drains out a few metres to the left of the spring (as you look at it) rather than from the Baby (it started to drain from the left about 2 or 3 years back and hardly any water now comes out of the Baby).

Thanks for the picture Leodian.I haven't been there for a few years.It is obviously moved fro mthe original spring but good to know it is still there.