The History of Well

Well Through The Ages – a brief history
Well is situated at the edge of a limestone escarpment that overlooks the Vale of Mowbray. Like the majority of towns and villages, Well is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wella. Wella is Old English and means ‘(a place at) the spring or stream’. In this case the spring or stream is now known as St Michaels’s Well, dedicated to St Michael by the early Christians. Although St Michaels’s Well is a spring not a well, the term well is often applied to sites which are considered to have some form of religious or spiritual significance. It is one of several springs which feed the stream flowing into the tarn at Holly Hill. The stream follows a culvert that once supplied water to a mill at Mill End and then emerges to flow through the village, where residents cross the water via their own bridges. Well was once described as ‘the village of 90 bridges’ though there are now only about 30.
Occupation of the area pre-dates Christianity as there is evidence of a Roman villa complex and bath house in Mill End. A portion of a mosaic floor was removed during excavation and can be seen in the church. The bath house and subsidiary buildings were last excavated in the 1940s and a large plunge pool was discovered in addition to the heated bath complex that was excavated in the c18. Mosaics are still found by residents in Mill End when gardening!
The church of St Michael the Archangel has been shaped by some of the most powerful feudal families in the land, notably the Nevilles, Latimers and Cecils. Ralph Neville was responsible for the building of the present church c1330. He married John of Gaunt’s daughter and their daughter Cicely was mother to future kings Edward IV and Richard III. The church replaced an earlier Norman building (the arched entrance to the church survives from the Norman church) which in turn replaced an even earlier building recorded in the Domesday Book.
Next to the church Ralph Neville founded the Hospital of St Michael in 1342, which is now the north wing of Well Hall (not open to the public). A row of almshouses called St Michael’s Cottages and dating from 1758 are adjacent to the church. In the 18th and 19th centuries they contained apartments for 8 men and 8 women, the women housed on the upper floor. A small chapel is still attached to the western end of the houses.
The Old School, originally the workhouse school, was founded in 1605 by Thomas Earl of Exeter and his wife Dorothy, daughter of John Neville. The school was endowed with £30 a year for the maintenance of a master and mistress and 12 poor girls from Well and Snape. In 1788 it was converted into two single sex free schools to which each house in the village could send a boy and a girl between the ages of 6 and 13. The school was rebuilt in 1867 and in 1890 had space for 80 pupils.
Well Through The Ages – a brief history
Well is situated at the edge of a limestone escarpment that overlooks the Vale of Mowbray. Like the majority of towns and villages, Well is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wella. Wella is Old English and means ‘(a place at) the spring or stream’. In this case the spring or stream is now known as St Michaels’s Well, dedicated to St Michael by the early Christians. Although St Michaels’s Well is a spring not a well, the term well is often applied to sites which are considered to have some form of religious or spiritual significance. It is one of several springs which feed the stream flowing into the tarn at Holly Hill. The stream follows a culvert that once supplied water to a mill at Mill End and then emerges to flow through the village, where residents cross the water via their own bridges. Well was once described as ‘the village of 90 bridges’ though there are now only about 30.
Occupation of the area pre-dates Christianity as there is evidence of a Roman villa complex and bath house in Mill End. A portion of a mosaic floor was removed during excavation and can be seen in the church. The bath house and subsidiary buildings were last excavated in the 1940s and a large plunge pool was discovered in addition to the heated bath complex that was excavated in the c18. Mosaics are still found by residents in Mill End when gardening!
The church of St Michael the Archangel has been shaped by some of the most powerful feudal families in the land, notably the Nevilles, Latimers and Cecils. Ralph Neville was responsible for the building of the present church c1330. He married John of Gaunt’s daughter and their daughter Cicely was mother to future kings Edward IV and Richard III. The church replaced an earlier Norman building (the arched entrance to the church survives from the Norman church) which in turn replaced an even earlier building recorded in the Domesday Book.
Next to the church Ralph Neville founded the Hospital of St Michael in 1342, which is now the north wing of Well Hall (not open to the public). A row of almshouses called St Michael’s Cottages and dating from 1758 are adjacent to the church. In the 18th and 19th centuries they contained apartments for 8 men and 8 women, the women housed on the upper floor. A small chapel is still attached to the western end of the houses.
The Old School, originally the workhouse school, was founded in 1605 by Thomas Earl of Exeter and his wife Dorothy, daughter of John Neville. The school was endowed with £30 a year for the maintenance of a master and mistress and 12 poor girls from Well and Snape. In 1788 it was converted into two single sex free schools to which each house in the village could send a boy and a girl between the ages of 6 and 13. The school was rebuilt in 1867 and in 1890 had space for 80 pupils.