Saint
The Saint's Pool
Where a missionary saint baptised the pagan Saxons, says tradition.
Private, don't visit
- What's there
- Small pond in the grounds near Taplow Court
- Legend from
- c. 635
- Tone
- Curious
Near Taplow Court lies a quiet pool. Tradition says a 7th-century saint baptised the first Saxon Christians of this region in its waters.
Bapsey Pond is a small pool in the grounds near Taplow Court, high above the Thames. Tradition links it to St Birinus, the missionary who converted the West Saxons and became the first Bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames. He is said to have come to Taplow in about 635 and baptised his Saxon converts in this pool, turning a place of pagan importance into a Christian one, and it has long been known as Bapsey Pond. It lies close to Taplow's famous Saxon burial mound, where a rich pagan chieftain was buried, and to the site of the first church, built beside the mound in the late 600s.