The White Spring

Victorian well house turned pagan temple, just across the lane from Chalice Well

A few metres up Wellhouse Lane from Chalice Well, the White Spring emerges in a low Victorian brick reservoir building. Where Chalice Well runs rust-red with iron, this one runs milky white with calcium. The Victorian water board lost interest a century ago, and the cavernous interior has slowly become an unofficial pagan temple — candle-lit shrines to the goddess, the green man, and Brigid, water cascading over makeshift altars, the smell of incense and damp stone.

It is a strange, beautiful, atmospheric place that feels more sincerely sacred than many proper churches. The volunteers ask only for a small donation. Open from late morning to evening; check the times posted at the door. Bring a sweater — it is cold inside.

things to do sight
A story
The Victorians enclosed the spring inside a brick reservoir in 1872 to supply Glastonbury with drinking water, then abandoned it when the iron staining proved too hard to clean. By the late 20th century the empty reservoir had been adopted by local pagans as a candlelit temple. Bring a torch — the interior is lit only by candles and the daylight that leaks through the doorway.