A thank-you for your holy well heritage volunteers: a photo of the little stone well-house in the hollow, clear water over the old steps and ribbons on the hawthorn, or a volunteer's hand clearing leaves from the spring as a jigsaw

Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it. We're not affiliated with any landowner, farmer, estate, parish council, local council, church, diocese, chapel, faith group, local history society, archaeological society, folklore society, museum, heritage trust, heritage body, heritage funder, sponsor, water company, school or community organisation. Nothing here is legal, historical, archaeological, religious, folklore, listed building, scheduled monument, conservation, water quality, drinking water, rights of way, events, insurance, first aid, health and safety, safeguarding, copyright, trade mark, photography permission or employment advice; check your own group's, council's and landowner's guidance on gifts, photos, the well, the water, the path, children and people's details.

It's a soft, grey morning in late October, and the lane down to the holy well is deep in wet leaves. At the bottom of the hollow, under an old hawthorn, there's a small stone well-house with a low arched opening and three worn steps leading down to a pool of very clear water. A retired district nurse called Bronwen, who has looked after the well for the parish history group for twelve years, is kneeling on a folded feed sack, scooping leaves out of the overflow channel with a sieve so the spring keeps running, and noting in a little book that the water level is higher than last month. Her friend Tom is taking down the faded rags and plastic ribbons that people have tied to the hawthorn over the summer, and putting the plastic ones in a bag. "We leave the cotton ones," he says. "They rot away. The plastic just strangles the tree." A walker with a little girl stops at the top of the steps. The girl asks if it's a wishing well. "Some people make wishes," Bronwen says. "Some people say a prayer. Some people just come because it's quiet. You don't have to do anything. Just don't drink it, love. It's lovely water, but it isn't tested."

If you want to say thank you to people like Bronwen and Tom, this is a guide to doing it well, with or without a puzzle.

Who we mean

Holy wells, the springs and wells linked with a saint, a healing story or a local custom, are found in fields, hollows, churchyards, woods and village streets across Britain, Ireland and much of Europe, and similar sacred springs exist in many other places. Some have a stone well-house or chapel, some are just a spring in a ring of stones, and some have been lost under roads and rediscovered. They're looked after by many kinds of volunteers: the people who keep the spring and channels clear, the recorders who note the condition of the stonework, the local history and folklore volunteers who search old maps, parish records and printed accounts, the guides and walk leaders, the photographers, the path and hedge volunteers, the people who talk to the landowner, council or heritage body when something is damaged, the education volunteers, the archive and oral history volunteers, and the committee members and founders who keep a small group going.

What they actually do

They do the visible things: leading walks, telling visitors the stories, and keeping the well tidy. They also do a lot of quieter work. They clear leaves and silt from channels and steps, keep paths open, gently remove litter and plastic offerings, check the stonework after floods and frosts, report damage to the owner rather than rebuilding it themselves, compare old photographs and drawings with the well today, collect people's memories of visiting as children, and keep records that will still be useful long after they've stopped.

A little history, honestly told

People have valued springs for a very long time, and many holy wells in Britain and Ireland are linked with early medieval saints, whose stories say they founded a church nearby, baptised people at the spring or caused it to rise. In the medieval period some wells drew pilgrims, had chapels built over them, and were believed to help with particular illnesses, especially of the eyes and skin. After the Reformation many were discouraged, neglected, filled in or renamed, though local customs often carried on quietly. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries antiquarians and folklorists recorded wells and their customs, Victorians restored or rebuilt some well-houses, and in recent decades many local groups have cleared and cared for wells again.

Much of the detail is honestly uncertain. Some "ancient" customs are fairly recent revivals, some saints' stories were written down centuries after the saint lived, a well may have had several names, and claims of pre-Christian origins are often guesses. The best volunteers say "the story goes", "we think" and "nobody really knows", and that honesty is part of the charm.

An honest note about the past

Holy wells mean different and sometimes deeply felt things to different people: to Christians of several traditions, to people who follow other spiritual paths, to people who come for folklore or quiet, and to people who simply love the landscape. Some wells were fought over or suppressed when beliefs about saints and pilgrimage were contested, and people who came hoping for healing were often poor, ill and without any other help. Good volunteers talk about this kindly and plainly, without mocking anyone's beliefs and without promising cures, and leave room for whatever the visitor brings.

Why a photo jigsaw can work

A thank-you that gives them a moment back can be lovely: the spring running clear after a long dry summer, snowdrops in the hollow in February, the well-house in low winter sun, the day the group finished clearing the steps. A photo puzzle is a small way of doing that. They piece the moment together, slowly, and at the end your note appears. It suits a volunteer who loves detail: moss on old stone, light on moving water, the bark of the hawthorn, the curve of the arch.

Photos that work

• the well-house in the hollow, with the hawthorn or trees around it
• the clear water over the old steps, close up
• the arched opening or carved stone, in side light
• the spring in frost, snow or with snowdrops or bluebells nearby
• a volunteer's hand with the sieve or a trowel, for scale
• an old drawing, photograph or postcard of the well beside the same view today
• the walk group gathered at the top of the lane, taken from behind so no faces are clear, with permission
• a child's drawing of the well and the tree

Ask the people in the photo before you use it, and ask the landowner or archive before using photographs of private land, old postcards or documents. Many visitors on walks and school trips are children, so follow your school's or group's photo rules carefully, and keep faces, names, uniforms and badges out of the frame unless you have clear permission from parents and organisers. Some wells are protected as listed structures or scheduled monuments and some are places of prayer, so don't climb on the stonework, move stones, tie plastic to trees or interrupt anyone who has come to pray for a photo, and don't share exact locations of fragile or private wells if the group prefers not to.

Getting the JPG right

Use a JPG, sharp and well lit. Stay safe: steps around wells are often wet, mossy and slippery, water can be deeper or colder than it looks, and lanes and field paths can be muddy, so wear good shoes, keep children and dogs close and away from the edge, and don't drink or wash in the water unless the owner says it's safe. Shade and water confuse cameras: on a bright day, tap the screen on the stonework so it isn't lost in shadow; on an overcast day the water's reflections are softer and easier to capture. Get low, at the height of the top step, to see into the well-house.

Privacy and an optional PIN

Puzzlify puzzles are private links. You can add an optional PIN so only the person you send it to can open it. Photos aren't used to train AI and aren't shared with third parties.

Say it's from you

Put your name, or your family's, in the note at the end so they know who sent it. A puzzle that ends with "from the walker and the little girl who asked about wishes" is a thank-you, not a mystery.

Piece counts

How to send it

Make the puzzle, write the note, publish the link, and send it by email or message, or print the link as a QR code inside a card. The recipient doesn't need an account or an app; it plays in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

Note examples

• "Thank you for keeping the water running."
• "She still talks about the well and the tree with the ribbons. Thank you."
• "Twelve years of clearing leaves. Thank you for every one."
• "We'll never walk down the lane again without thinking of you."

Honest pricing

The preview is free, so you can see how it looks before deciding anything. Publishing the link costs one credit (€3.99), or less per puzzle with a bundle. It's a digital puzzle, not a printed one, so nothing arrives in the post. If a card and a few sentences feel like enough, they are.

Ideas that are not a puzzle

• a handwritten card, perhaps with a little sketch of the well-house
• a short message to the history group, landowner or parish council naming the volunteer, so it reaches them
• a donation towards the well's upkeep or the group's records in their name
• an offer of your own time: helping clear leaves under supervision, carrying tools down the lane, or transcribing old accounts
• an old family photograph or memory of the well, offered to the archive if they'd like it

If a photo puzzle feels right as well, choose the well-house, the clear water, the old steps or an old postcard, take it from safe, dry footing with permission and without moving stones or disturbing anyone at prayer, keep children and anyone's details out of the frame, pick a piece count that suits them, and write the note in your own words. You can make a free preview here and decide later whether to send it.

Whatever you send, the most important part is the sentence that sounds like you, written to the person who kneels on a feed sack to clear the channel, who takes the plastic off the hawthorn and leaves the cotton, and who tells a curious child that wishing, praying and simply sitting quietly are all allowed, one leaf at a time, one jigsaw piece at a time.

Written by the small team behind Puzzlify (info@puzzlify.app). Not legal, historical, archaeological, religious, folklore, listed building, scheduled monument, conservation, water quality, drinking water, rights of way, events, insurance, first aid, health and safety, safeguarding, copyright, trade mark, photography permission or employment advice. Check your own group's, council's and landowner's guidance on gifts, photos, the well, the water, the path, children and people's details.