Saint
St Osyth's Eye Well
Under the old Causeway lies a lost spring once trusted to heal failing eyes.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A yard where the well once was; nothing survives
- Legend from
- Medieval
- Tone
- Curious
Somewhere under this corner of Bishop's Stortford lies St Osyth's Well, once trusted to heal sore eyes.
Bishop's Stortford once had a holy well dedicated to St Osyth, whose water was said to cure diseases of the eye. Medieval references place it in the Causeway, close to the old town mill beside the River Stort. The town historian J. L. Glasscock pinned it down more exactly: about ten yards from the river and twenty yards south-west of the mill, in what later became the backyard of a tinsmith named Joseph Christy. The well remained in use until around 1840 before it was lost. Its site now lies roughly halfway between the Bridge Street entrance to Jackson Square and Devoils Lane.