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Holy well

St Wite's Well and Shrine

Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset

The only parish church in England that still holds a saint's bones.

St Wite, or Candida, was a Saxon holy woman. Her bones lie in a stone shrine in the church at Whitchurch Canonicorum, with holes where pilgrims put their ailing limbs or offered prayers.

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When
Saxon
Where
50.7500, -2.8600
Group
Holy wells & springs

Visiting

St Candida and Holy Cross church is usually open. The village is near Charmouth.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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