In last week's history of Frodsham Castle, I mentioned the mysterious Synagogue Well, which is tucked away in a shady corner of the Castle Park grounds.

And that got me wondering: given that Frodsham has never appeared to house a significant Jewish community, why was this secluded woodland pool given such an intriguing title?

Although he mentions "Synagogue Well, evidently one of great antiquity," in his 1893 book The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Charles Hope was clearly just as confused as me, and included no clue as to the site's namesake in his account.

Looking further into the well's history, I find suggestions that it was once been a Jewish Mikveh or Mikvah, a bath built into a synagogue and used for the purposes of ritual immersion.

Ancient Mikveh have been found buried under ground level in London and Bristol, and so perhaps there really was a Jewish community attached to Frodsham Castle, who built this well in the Middle Ages.

However, there is no record of any Jewish settlement in Frodsham or Chester at this time, making this explanation highly unlikely.

More romantic speculation advances that the site was once visited by the 'Wandering Jew', a mythical being who was said to have taunted Jesus on his way to the Crucifixion, and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming.

There is even a poem written about Synagogue Well, which reads: "when Mersey's silvery tides / Were reddening with the beams of morn, / There stood beside the fountain clear / A man forlorn; / And, as his weary limbs he lav'd In its cool waters, you might trace / That he was of the wand'ring tribe Of Israel's race."

A more plausible version of events is put forward by William Beaumont in his Account of the Ancient Town of Frodsham in Cheshire.

Here, he argues: "It seems as if such a fount was necessary near an ancient castle; for as this fount rises close to the site of Frodsham Castle, so at the foot of Beeston Castle there is a similar spring.

"They both spring from the living rock, and both have a large square stone basin to receive the surplus water as it flows away."

As for the name, Beaumont writes that: "Some have suggested that Saint Agnes was its patron, and that thence it won its name."

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of engaged couples, and so a well dedicated to her would be a popular spot for young people searching for love.

So, perhaps Synagogue Well has no true religious connection at all, although it may be more exciting to believe that the site once played host to the legend of the Wandering Jew...

Many thanks to the author of this article on Synagogue Well, which also includes the full poem.

Thanks also to Frodsham and District History Society Archivist, Gill Baxter, for her help with this article!