The Treacle Well

The Oxford Oxfam Group Walk (12 June 2010) is a sponsored walk in the countryside around Oxford. There are so many unexpected an beautiful places on the route that we have given it the tagline "Discover a hidden world and change this one."

The places of interest along the route are brilliantly described in the walk booklet, written by local academic, author and OOG member Cyril Edwards. One passage explains how the "Treacle Well" got its name:

"...The main point of the detour, though, is St Margaret's, Binsey. Walk to the south end of the village, and then take the road to the right. (Ignore the awful noise from the Ring Road.) Follow the road for about a mile. A few houses and conifers, the trees of ancient Thornbury, mark your destination. Goats graze in an adjacent field. It's a simple little church, essentially 12thC, with some fine medieval glass in the east window. Legend has it that St Frideswide (c. 680-735), the patron saint of Oxford, built an oratory here in Saxon times. Here she also cured the Mercian prince Algar, her would-be seducer, of blindness, using water from St Margaret's Well, which she created by praying to St Margaret of Antioch, an obscure 5thC martyr. The well is still there in the churchyard, a place of pilgrimage. Both the church and the well were restored by T.J. Prout in the 19thC. Prout was a friend of Lewis Carroll – hence the 'treacle well' in Alice in Wonderland. In Middle English tryacle or triacle meant a medicinal compound or healing fluid, but the Dormouse appears to be ignorant of this:

'Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; 'and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well –'
'What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.
'They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.
'They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked. 'They'd have been ill.'
'So they were,' said the Dormouse; 'very ill.' "

So there you go! Register for the Oxford Oxfam Group Walk, and have a great day in the country while raising money for Oxfam. Register at www.oogwalk.info - registration is free, and it really helps us to know how many walkers to expect.