Between two hills, the Tor and Chalice Hill in Glastonbury, Somerset, there is an ancient Spring that flows from the ground in the valley. This is the Chalice Well, sometimes called ‘The Blood Well’, whose waters constantly flow at 25,000 gallons per day and at a constant temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees centigrade).
The Well today is surrounded by beautiful gardens in the Summerlands, where the poet Tennyson famously wrote ‘The island valley of Avalon, where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow’.
Water diviners and specialists have reported that the Spring has a ‘primary’ origin coming from deep within the earth. The dowser Sig Lonegren has downsed many sites around the world and says ‘the water doesn’t come from above. It comes from below and so is not dependant on rainfall and begins its existence deep within the bowels of our mother, the Earth’.
The Spring has never been known to fail and in the dry years of 1921-22, it was the sole means of saving the whole town from drought.
Chalice Well water is freely available from the Lion’s Head fountain in the garden and also from Wellhouse Lane opposite the White Spring.
It is called chalybeate Spring because of its rich iron content which colours the water red and leads to many of the adventurous myths that surround the Chalice Well site, including that Joseph of Arimathea visiting and burying the two cruets containing the blood and water from Christ’s wounds.
The Well’s shaft is approximately 3’5” x 3’5” and is constructed from large, squared blocks of local lias. The total depth of the Well is 9 feet with the lower five and a half feet of the walls undisturbed while the blocks above this height have worn surfaces. One suggestion is that these upper stones are the remained of a corbelled roof. The walls of the shaft are bonded and vit very closely.
Not only does Christian mythology suggest that the Chalice Well marks the site where Joseph of Arimathea placed the chalice that had caught the drops of Christ’s blood at the Crucifixion, it links the Well to the wealth of speculation surrounding the existence of the Holy Grail. According to legend, the Tor, a masculine symbol, is hollow underneath and the entrance to the underworld, guarded by the Grail. The well, on the other hand, is a symbol of the feminine aspect of deity, and its waters are believed to possess healing qualities.
Cited from: www.chalicewell.org.uk