This moment of quiet contemplation – or just over three minutes to be exact – was found by artist Lisa Elen Atkin. It’s filmed at the Birch Well just beside Eagle Pond within sight of Snaresbrook Crown Court, for the appreciation of a Facebook group about holy wells and sacred springs of Britain. The Birch Well is, according to the Friends of Epping Forest, a
natural spring within the gravelly deposits here and is now surrounded by a ring of dressed granite with a small overflow leading to a ditch. It is surrounded by evergreen vegetation, mainly holly… In an age before piped water, wells like this one provided a source of water for the local inhabitants. Winifred Eastment in Wanstead through the Ages, 1946, quoted an elderly inhabitant of the area who claimed that “no water was ever as fresh, cool, sparkling and reviving as that which was drawn from Wanstead’s well”.
Enjoy it. But best not drink the water.