Then and Now Photos - St Patricks Well Ullswater

Many of the buildings along the road from Glenriddng to Patterdale would familiar to the people who lived in the Dale during the First World War. Patterdale Hall, then the domain of the Marshall family, owned much of the land in the Dale, St Patrick’s Church (built in its current form in 1853 after the old 17th century one was destroyed in a storm), the School, the Patterdale Hotel and White Lion Inn - all remain much as they were.

Then and Now St Patricks Well c.1908

St Patricks Well Ullswater 2014 © Rob Shephard

St Patrick’s Well c.1908. Picture from the Patterdale Today Website Then and Now section. Legend has it that St Patrick passed through Patterdale on one of his evangelising tours, and that as the Rev WP Morris wrote in 1903:

“During his short stay here he caused a church to be built (probably of wood) and that he also baptised a number of the inhabitants at a well, and the district was afterwards known as Patrickdale”

The Rev Morris was fairly sure that the present well was not on the original spot, having been constructed in the 18th Century to satisfy the “idle curiosity of visitors”.

The view today is not that different. The road does not look that much wider and the main addition is St Patrick’s Boat Landing. Sadly a visit to the well today is a very dangerous experience due to the road!