It appears that a spring already existed on the site when it was granted to Bishop Eardwulf by King Ethelbert II of Kent around 750 AD.

[2][3] After the Reformation, the oratory fell into ruin and the well into disuse – during the course of time becoming buried and forgotten.

However it was rediscovered in 1754,[5] by a Mr. Harwood, the Bishop's chaplain, who noticed a "yellow ochrey sediment, remaining in the tract of a small current, leading from the spring to the corner of the moat, with the waters of which it used to mix".

In 1887, the owner of the Bishop's palace (Mr. Coles Child) reported that, "The well is still in existence, although the whole building, as restored by my father, was knocked into the moat during the last heavy snowstorm".

[9] The well was eventually reconstructed and now stands in a Pulhamite rockery on the edge of a small lake.