HolyWell Burn

“a small stream that flows into the River Wear south of Willington. Its source lies near the poorly defined footpath that links Annapoorna and Rumby Hill. The spring would appear to lie in a corner of a field near this path where there are a few stones lying in the hedge and under some trees, but these are probably the remains of a field boundary.” (insearchofHolywellsandhealingsprings.com)

Helmington Row hospital was built in c1904 as a hospital for infectious diseases. HolyWell spring is close to the hospital. There are stories about the medicinal properties of the spring. A reference in 1805, a hundred years before the hospital was built, identifies the medicinal properties of a spring near Hunwick, which could be HolyWell Spring or maybe the Furnival Spring?

“There is a cold spring near Hunwick, Durham where parents and nurses bathed their children, with good effect, for rickets.”  (The Traveller’s Guide; Or, English Itinerary—By Walley Chamberlain Oulton · 1805)