Article from the Souther Reporter following the Pilgrimage in 2007





PILGRIMS PROGRESS TO STOW



Move to resurrect long neglected site could put Borders village on similar footing to Lourdes



By Mark Entwistle - Southern Reporter



LOURDES, Medjugorje, Fatima and Santiago del Compostela are some of the world's great religious pilgrimages.

And there are hopes that the Borders could soon have its own version, if attempts to resurrect one of Scotland's most ancient holy sites are successful.



It was in 2000, to mark the Millennium after centuries of neglect, that villagers restored the ancient Holy Well of Our Lady of Wedale at Torsonce.



The restored site was blessed and rededicated in the autumn of that year by local Episcopalian, Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland Clergy.



Since then the Fraternity of St Boisil, Scottish Guild of Servers, had sought to restore pilgrimage and worship at this ancient holy place.



And on Saturday, depsite driving rain showers, a significant number of worshippers made their way to Stow, for the annual service instituted in 2000.



The celebrant was Father Dale Gray, a member of the ministry team for churches in Kelso and Coldstream, while the preacher was the Reverened Canon Keith Pagan.



Music was provided by Exeter Camerata, who sang the Byrd Mass for four voices, together with plainsong and other early polyphony.



Father Gray told The Southern it was his hope that pilgrimages to the site of the well would become more popular in the coming years.



'I don't think the history of the well is that well known, even in the Borders, and yet this was one of the great sites of medieval pilgrimage', he said.



'It was really the Reformation which swept away almost all trace of the church which once sat atop the well and the other buildings'.



Father Gray also pointed out that if the number of pilgrims started to grow there could well be an economic spin-off from the Borders, such as those enjoyed by the surrounding community of the religious site.



'Despite the weather, it was a wonderful service at the weekend', he said.



The word 'Stow' comes from the old English of the Bernician Angles and it means 'The Holy Place', while the name 'Wedale' means 'The Valley of the Shrine', from

the old English word 'Wiche' meaning shrine and 'dahl' meaning dale or valley.



The first written mention of the shrine at Wedale is in the 'History of Britain' written by the Welch Monk Nemius in 826AD.



According to Nemius, it was King Arthur, in gratitude for a vision in which the Virgin Mary assured him of a victory over the invading Angles, who had an image of her placed in a shrine at what is now Stow.



Academics have suggested that this particular battle may well have taken place in the region of the Galawater where there are extensive Romano British fortifications near Torwoodlee and Bow.



And such was the reputation of this shrine that various Scottish kings down the ages paid homage there. The Anglo-Norman King, William the Lion, even decreed that the rite of sanctuary at the Stow of Wedale was to cover the entire parish, measuring 14 miles long by eight miles wide.



Stow suffered badly during the wars between Scotland and England, but it was the Reformation that saw almost all trace of the church and the other buildings swept away in a protestant fervour.



And the 19th and 20th centuries were not much kinder, witnessing further destruction on the Marian sites.



The large boulder with the imprint of the Virgin’s Foot was crushed for road material for the A7, and in 1863 a farmer at adapted the Holy Well as a cattle trough.



In 1963 the remains of the Chapel of Our Lady of Torsonce were bulldozed to provide bottoming for field access tracks.