The well has long been associated with curative properties, particularly relating to skin conditions.
As well as the supposedly curing the eponymous hermit who lived at Gawton’s Stone the well waters were regularly used by local people, who used nearby stone to fashion a small rectangular bathing pool at the site.
Writing in 1686, Dr Robert Plot, in ‘The Natural History of Stafford-Shire’ states:
“There are many waters such as the water of the well at Gawton Stone…which has some reputation for the cure of the King’s evil..”
The ‘King’s evil’ being the archaic name for the disease scrofula.