MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX. 229
it ; and Mr. Henry Aylett, living near Boyland's Oak, stated that
he remembers drinking its water, forty years ago, when he was
a boy, but that the well is now entirely neglected and unknown
to the rising generation.
The well is in a meadow, known as "Purging-well-Field," 115
at a spot about midway between Bourne Bridge and the old
windmill at Boyland's Oak, and about one hundred yards north
from the belt of trees bounding Havering Park. It is on a
steep northerly slope, and it is marked by a solitary maple-tree
growing over it. The base of this tree is now piled round with
faggots, intended to form a shelter for game. These entirely
conceal any water there may be in the well ; which, so far as
one can see, is now dry. Mr. Aylett says that it was always
a very small spring—merely a hollow in the ground, about
the size of a hand-basin, with a little water in it.
Mr. Dalton points out that this spring is situate in a broad
spread of London Clay of about medium thickness.
(14).—The Wethersfield Spring,—A chalybeate spring in this
parish was mentioned in 1769 by the compiler of the History of
Essex, "by a Gentleman," who writes 116 that,
In the road to Bocking, at a small distance from the town, is a well with a
most excellent chalybeate spring, but now undeservedly neglected. There are
other chalybeate springs in this parish, of less note ; but, it analysed by a skilful
person, [they] would be found to be of a superior quality. This we are authorised
to say by undoubted intelligence from a Gentleman who has tasted them and in
whose opinion they are highly worthy of notice.
Mr. Dalton observes that the road to Bocking passes over a
series of low ridges of London Clay, capped by spurs of Glacial
Gravel, and that the spring referred to is, doubtless, at the
junction of the two series.
(15).—The Gidea Hall Spring.—The first writer to draw
attention to this spring appears to have been Trinder, in 1783.
He says117 that the
" Gidea Hall Water rises on the bank of a canal in the park of Richard
Benyon, Esq., near Romford in Essex. A great quantity of ochreous earth
appears in the channel of this spring, and also in various parts of the adjacent
115 See Mr. W. C. Waller, F.S.A., in Trans. Essex Archaeol. Soc., n.s., vi., p. 78 (1878). A.
"First Purge Field" and a "Second Purge Field" also exist in Havering parish,
116 Op. cit. ii. (1769), p. 21.
117 Medicinal Waters in Essex, p. 13 (1783).