Furnace Well and Furnival Well

The sulphurous waters from the two springs became something of a tourist attraction as they were reported to be good for indigestion and other ailments.

Furnace Well to the north of the mill became such an attraction that in the late 1700s Henry Utrick Reay, the owner of Hunwick Hall, enclosed it with a building, approached by a road and flight of steps. The water stopped flowing in the 1840s, with mining taking the blame. Similarly, the Furnival Well became dry in 1842, having previously burst from the riverbank on the sharp bend of the Wear south of the mill. It appears to have taken its name from Baron Furnivall, which is an ancient title in the peerage of England. The title passed to Thomas Neville, who sat in Parliament as Lord Furnival in 1384. He had married the first baron’s descendant, Joan de Furnivall. 

Furnace Well and Furnival Well