3rd June. Keys Becks Road

Steve Partridge via Wikimedia Commons

I was going to write in depth about The Old Wive's Well, which is situated down there at the bottom, or at least on the rise of the hill of the above photo, well at least a few hundred yards into Cropton Forest but you can read about it in the following link  Why this photo, well just at the bottom is another beck that goes under the bridge across the road.  And it is here that the Roman road would have crossed from Cawthorn Camps to the illustrated one on my other blog, in fact it is here that you park and go through the little gate to follow the path of the old Roman road.

Old Wive's Well; Copyright Gordon Hatton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

You will read on the Yorkshire wells site that..

On the stone lintel over the well chamber are the words "NATTIE FONTEIN", carved in rough letters. It has been suggested that this could be derived from 'Fons Natalis' - a Celtic water nymph. On a visit to the well in June 99 it was noted that the N and A in "NATTIE" are carved in such a way that the word could be read as "MATTIE FONTEIN" perhaps meaning "Mother Fountain". This might then be another reference to the Old Wife ?.

'The Old Wife' can be found quite often in this part of Yorkshire, and some would say that such a name belongs to the far past and even a celtic goddess. Take all references sometimes with a pinch of salt, it may be true of course, but those learned antiquarians of past centuries were quite happy to dabble in latin inscriptions, and though this well is on the track way for Roman legions marching by, would it have been inscribed?..... as for Mattie/Nattie/Natalis  See Die Natalis which means a birthday or annual event.

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Yesterday evening a knock on the door and our neighbour wondered if we would like a drive in the electric car he was contemplating buying and which was on loan.  Intrigued we went off for a drive, silently it glided out of the driveway and off we went very quietly.  Just a whole new game show, with the computer on the dashboard telling us what it was doing.  Would I like one, not sure, this car was a bit blingy, very comfortable and dashing, but not terribly practical.  The batteries are apparently slung all along the bottom of the car, and you can travel for a hundred miles before you have to recharge, not exactly the best for long journeys.  I had noticed on the motorways that you can recharge (fast) at motorway service stops.  Funnily enough I am contemplating a car, small and secondhand for travelling about more, as LS does not like walking as much as I do, but think I would give electric cars a miss.  Fancy breaking down on the moors, you would have to be towed away....