The Jeely Well
WHERE HAD ALL THE WATER GONE
There is an old Scots saying “You never miss the water till the well runs dry.”
This seemed to be precisely the case for the little Fowlis Burn which is such an attractive feature as it runs through, and has been landscaped into the gardens of the houses on the North side of the village, before disappearing under the road and the carpark of the Village Hall. It is not unknown for it to be dry for a few weeks in a hot summer but this year, recent quite significant rainfall notwithstanding, there had been no visible flow from June to 10 October 2019. Why?
As well as the rainfall draining from the Fowlis Wester Braes the constant, and previously stable, source of the water in the burn is of course the Jeely Well situated at the bottom of the woods on the North-west side of the village. Work had been carried out to clear the undergrowth around the well and provide more ready access to it. As of 10 October when the pictures were taken, there was water visible in the well, but it was not filling the cavity or flowing over the ground and only a very small amount was seeping through the ground into the newly cleared channel.
It had been a hot and unusually dry Summer. Did this mean that the ground was so dry that it was still soaking up all the rainfall? Had the water table dropped so far that the Jeely Well – a spring – was no longer flowing as usual? Or more radically had there been some change in the underlying rock formation that was allowing the water to drain down to a lower level? That water was in the well, albeit not flowing over, seemed to negate the last thought.
Could the long, delightful poem ‘Auld Foulis and the Jeely Well’ written by Thomas Hardy and published in 1895 provide a clue? Here are some perhaps relevant verses.
Oh, ye wha kent the Jeely Spring,
I’m sure you like’t it weel,
How bonny was’t when you an’ me
Was laddies at the skeel.
Ye mind the paith – the wudden brig –
The crystal spoot that play’d
Sae bonnily – sae merrily –
Aneth the plantin’s shade.
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We’ve splash’t an’ paidle’t at the spring
Through the leeve lang simmer day;
Nae cloud upon oor happy hearts –
Nae thocht but bairns’ play
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And oor Mithers and oor Aunties!
Ye mind hoo they wad streech,
On the bonnie green beside the well,
Their banks o’ yarn to bleach!
O Jeely! You an’ me’s been friens
For mony and mony a year.
But noo ye’re no like what ye was!
Wow! Sic a change is here.
The broken brig’, the futpaith spoilt,
The spring chock’d up wi’ sand.
Ye’ll hardly won atowe’r to drink,
Sae weet an’ saft the land!
They tell us that afore the hairst *
A spate brok doon like thunder,
An’ smoor’d the Spring wi’ rubbish-wreck-
Puir Jeely! She was under.
(* hairst = harvest)
The folk o’ Foulis they thocht that they
Wad see old Jeely never;
But neest day Jeely trickle’t through
An spootit clear as ever.
So even a hundred years ago Jeely had a chequered existence!
THE WATER RETURNS
After the frequent and sometimes heavy rain over the week-end of 12 - 14 October 2019 a small but steady flow once again returned in the burn - much to the relief of all.
With the work in hand showing promise for its access path and gentle landscaping of the area as the water table re-establishes, how great it will be when Jeely can spoot as clear as ever once again to feed into the Fowlis Burn. Having completed the heavy work, the intent remains that volunteers can organise to contribute to landscaping the whole area, possibly laying a surface onto the path, constructing a bridge, whether with wooden or stone pillars and sleepers, and keeping the area strimmed and accessible to the community as a whole.
Reproduced from ‘A Perthshire Preacher, Poet, Pastor’
By the Rev Thomas Hardy – Published 1913