Through the Freemen’s Well

On St Mark’s Day the men being made freemen of Alnwick rode out in white, with swords at their sides, behind the Duke of Northumberland’s officers to the Freemen’s Well, a large muddy pool on the common. There they all walked straight through it and came out soaked and filthy, changed their clothes, took a dram and rode round the bounds of the common. The story was that King John had been bogged in the pool and punished the town by making every new freeman wade it. The freemen of Alnwick still go through the well.