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Os grid reference roughly SE.0288 6277. The well is not marked on any map. Thor's Well or Thruskeld Well (sometimes called Thorskill Well) is located by a footpath between the villages of Burnsall and Hebden and close to the River Wharf. It is an ancient spring of pre-Christian origins, however, in the 9th-10th century Viking settlers re-named the well after the Norse god of Thunder, Thor. Before this time it was most probably a Christian holy well with a dedication to either St Helen or St Margaret. We know that in the 7th century AD the Saxon churchman St Wilfrid came to Burnsall and preached from a rock beside the river Wharfe just north of the village at a place that is still called Wilfrid's Crag; he apparently converted many local people to the Christian faith.
What we know about Thor's well is very little apart from that the said spring flowed into a pond (now gone) though the spring is still there and the pond is more like a small pool on the ground. There are two wells close to Burnsall Lane near Wilfrid's Crag - one of these may be Thor's Well. The well was mentioned by Hary Speight in his work 'Higher Wharfedale', by R.C.Hope in his work 'The Legendary Lore of The Holy Wells of England, 1893, and also by the author W.S.Cordiner.
What we know about Thor's well is very little apart from that the said spring flowed into a pond (now gone) though the spring is still there and the pond is more like a small pool on the ground. There are two wells close to Burnsall Lane near Wilfrid's Crag - one of these may be Thor's Well. The well was mentioned by Hary Speight in his work 'Higher Wharfedale', by R.C.Hope in his work 'The Legendary Lore of The Holy Wells of England, 1893, and also by the author W.S.Cordiner.
