Monument record 0193300000 - ST RUMBOLD'S WELL, BUCKINGHAM

Dimensions - Width 4m, Length 10m.
Plan Form - Rectangular.
Scheduled: SAM 29442 (B8).
Well house of St Rumbold's well; small 1 storey building of stone rubble. Stone in E wall gable carved with initials & date 'L/WM/1623'. Doorway in N wall, a 4-centred arch, with sunk spandrels, and square head (B1,B7).
Well dug out in 1960s by Buckingham Archaeological Society (B4).
Now ruinous (B5).
At NGR (B3).
Account of St Rumwald & shrine (B6).
Well and possible circular wellhead or wellhouse shown on Speed's map of 1610. In 1623 the spring had been enclosed by a private conduit house supplying Castle House. The wellhouse survived relatively intact at least until 1913 when it was described in some detail by the Royal Commission, but by 1968 the walls had been demolished to ground level (B10).
Detailed survey of well house and adjacent earthworks carried out following removal of vegetation from the structure in December 2000. Two door jambs were identified in the northwall, a fragment of a stone column or pillar and other dressed stone was observed, and a possible length of retaining wall associated with a nearby spring was recorded. Earthworks surveyed include remains of ridge and furrow, a possible parish boundary bank and ditch, and probable quarry pits (B11).
Watching brief carried out in March 2002 during restoration work, revealed previously unrecorded internal stone steps (possibly secondary) and some constructional detail. At the time of the building's decay, its roof was of tile (B12).
2 leaflets on St Rumbold and associated sites produced by the Buckingham Society (B13-14).
Included in Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register in 2023 and 2024. The site has been the subject of heritage crime and is temporarily fenced off. The well requires vegetation clearance and consolidation, plus a planned programme of future maintence. Condition described as 'Extensive significant problems'; with the principal vulnerability identified as 'localised/limited natural erosion', and the trend as 'declining' (B15-16).