St Chad’s Well, Stowe, Lichfield, Staffordshire

In July 2006, Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a field evaluation on land adjacent to Well Cottage, Stowe, Lichfield (SK 1215 1021). The work was carried out on behalf of St Chad’s Foundation Trust, in advance of
the proposed construction of a new visitor centre. The site is thought to have close associations with the 7th century Mercian bishop St Chad, and is the site of a holy spring. The first documentary source for a well on the
site is from the 16th century. The early 19th century saw the construction of a new brick lined well shaft and an octagonal well house, the latter probably on the site of an earlier structure. Well cottage and a new well
house were constructed in the mid-20th century.
The evaluation revealed evidence for a stone wall, possibly around the site of the spring, which was overlain by the foundations of the 19th-century octagonal well house. Part of the brick lined well shaft was revealed to the
south. Evidence for landscaping associated with the 20th-century structures was revealed within the trenches.