Mother Ludlam's Cave

Mother Ludlam's Cave, also known as Mother Ludlum's Cave or Mother Ludlum's Hole, is a small cave in the sandstone cliff of the Wey Valley at Moor Park, near Farnham, Surrey, in England. The cave is the subject of a number of local legends. A spring rising in the cave is recorded in the 13th century "Annals of Waverley Abbey" as "Ludewell"; other spellings through history include "Ludwell" and "Luddwelle". A monk named Symon is credited with identifying the spring as a suitable water supply for Waverley Abbey in 1218, after the original source had dried up. The brothers of the abbey dedicated the spring to St Mary, so it also became known as St Mary's Well. The cave has been naturally formed by the spring but may have been enlarged by the monks and was made into a grotto (possibly during the eighteenth century) and further enhanced by addition of an ironstone arched entrance, possibly during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The cave was explored and surveyed at around 200 feet long in 1945 and as 192 feet to a recent roof collapse in 1961.

According to the information panel erected at the cave by Waverley Borough Council the name Ludwell can be traced back to the Celtic language, and means "bubbling spring".John Aubrey visited the area in 1673 and was informed that Ludwell was named after Lud, King of the South Saxons, who went there to bathe his wounds after a battle. A story originating with the Norman-Welsh writer of historicised legends Geoffrey of Monmouth has Ludd, Lud or Llud as the ruler of Celtic Britain and founder of London. A modern ethnographer would identify Lud as a Celtic god: a temple dedicated to him once stood in London near eponymous Ludgate, as are numerous toponyms in England and a very few in Ireland. He is also known as the Celtic god of healing thus Celtic-speaking people must have known of the spring but whether they considered it a sacred spring long before the monks of nearby Waverley Abbey used it as a source of fresh water and rededicated it to St Mary (the Holy Mother) is unknown. The "Lud" element of the name is maintained in the latest adaptation, "Mother Ludlam".

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