LAST week’s guest church, was not a church, of course, but a holy well, and was correctly identified by Robert Hall, and also by George Parkinson.

Mr Hall ,of Thornton-in-Craven, tells us: “The holy well is in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church, Thornton-in-Craven. The octagonal well-house enclosing the spring was built to protect it in 1764 by the local rector Henry Richardson.

“ It was restored in 2005 and is Grade 2 listed. It is the only holy well in the Leeds Anglican Diocese and even today it remains a place of pilgrimage and ‘sprinkling’ ceremonies. The sacred spring itself dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period.”

The ‘sprinkling’ says the church on its website, is the simple form of service associated with a holy well.

A sip of water is first drunk, from a ladle held by the minister, it is then used to make the sign of the cross on the forehead, a remembrance of the cross bestowed at baptism. Finally, the rest of the water is poured into the cupped hands of the pilgrim, to be used for symbolic washing, or to be applied to a limb in need of healing.

The church continues that the well was the first ‘church’ in Thornton, and it was the well - the spring - that decided the siting of the building on the site today.

“It is probable that the early Christian community would have gathered around the spring to celebrate the Baptism of one of their members when a priest visited, and returned to the spring later, to collect water , and to offer their continuing prayer and worship.”

This week’s guest church, pictured above, is also a heritage centre and is also in the Leeds Anglican Diocese. Suggestions by 8am on Monday to news@cravenherald.co.uk