Return to Peggy's Spout
By J. A. Hilton from Northern Earth 70
In my article 'Peggy's Spout' (NE 54, summer 1993), I described the mythological background to a local spring near the village of Top Lock, near Wigan in Lancashire, and apparently identified the site. However, this identification was incorrect. My informant and I were misled by the re-routing of a public footpath (PF Aspull 39/Ince 5 used to run through the middle of Bank House farmyard but in 1980 was diverted around the farm buildings to the other side of Ince Brook) and by the sinking of a new well in the adjacent field.
The O.S. map of 1892 reveals that the original Peggy's Spout was a well alongside the footpath as it passed through the farmyard. This spring now fills a large ornamental pond in front of the farmhouse, and the farmer, Mr. R. Farnworth, kindly allowed me to visit it. Despite the recent droughts, the pond has remained full. The O.S. Grid Reference for the pond is SD 612 062.
Peggy and her Wells
The similar Peg of Peg's Well at Waddow Hall (see John Billingsley, 'The Lady of the Dark Waters', NE 54), near the River Ribble, seems to be the deity of the river, and she has been identified with the Celtic goddess Belisama, the Queen of Heaven, whom the Romans regarded as the equivalent of Minerva. As Kipling's Puck put it, "I remember one goddess called Belisama. She became a common wet water-sprite somewhere in Lancashire". Minerva Belisama was worshipped in the Roman stations in Lancashire, including Coccium, usually identified as Wigan, within sight of Peggy's Spout.
Minerva was also identified by the Romans with the Celtic goddess Sul, who gave her name to the spa town of Bath, Aquae Sulis, the waters of Sul. As well as the Lancashire Peg, there is the Peg Powler of the Tees, and a Peggy Well near Bradford. There may well be more, and I would be glad to hear of them.
The name Peggy is virtually identical to the Greek pegae (in the Roman alphabet), the word for a well or spring. As a proper noun Pegae was the name of the pool where Hylas, the companion of Hercules and one of the Argonauts, was lured into the depths by the nymph Dryope and her sisters (an incident depicted in Waterhouse's painting in Manchester City Art Gallery). The disappearance or death of Hylas was commemorated in the Mysian rites. Hylas of the Woods was one of the sacred kings of the oak cult, like Adonis, who was sacrificed to the goddess of vegetation by women who tore him to pieces and devoured him, and then cleansed themselves in a spring, announcing that the victim had vanished. According to Homer, Dryope was the mother of Pan.
According to Gibbon, in the Doric dialect of Greek spoken in parts of Italy, the word pegae became pagae, and this word for a spring or a fountain came to be applied to the surrounding district, and then to the countryside, and thence to its inhabitants who (in contrast to the citizens of the towns who were quick to become Christians) were faithful to the old gods and so were called pagans.
This obscure water-sprite Peggy, therefore, emerges as a central goddess of the old pagan religion.
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