By John Hodgson

The well is about 1100’ north of the junction of Back St, Rosemary Lane and Hands Lane at SY 579858.

(information from Jeremy Harte): The earliest reference which I could find for Lady's Well was on ‘A plan of the manor of Abbotsbury’, 1791, in the Ilchester papers, where the field around it appears as Lady’s Well. The spring itself is featured as Lady Well on the 1891 OS. I'm sorry to hear that it has dried up, although I suppose this gives you an opportunity to look more closely at the surrounding stones. I could never see any evidence of dressed or coursed masonry, but then it always used to be covered in brambles. When I was there the stream was still running quite plentifully so it's hard to see what could have caused the loss of water - not extraction, surely. Have the fields uphill been drained? When was it last running?

A few general remarks about Ladywells might help with context. This kind of name is first recorded in 1294, which is very late for a holy well tradition, and the Virgin Mary does not feature as a patron of wells at all until the thirteenth century. Before then she seems to have been thought of as too powerful and distant a figure to be involved in a cult of local country places. Most Ladywells seem to have been dedicated in the century 1450-1550. Some may have continued as special places for Catholics after the Reformation.

The other holy well, beside the Fleet at SY 590 826, appears as Holywell Spring on the 1891 OS. I couldn't find any earlier references but with your better knowledge of the records you may have come across some.

Dave Wood, who has long farmed the land, tells me that the Estate diverted the water in the early seventies in order to create a couple of small reservoirs just behind the hedge in Hands Lane in order to provide water for the new council houses. The latter are now served by the mains and the reservoirs are empty. The water is now used to feed the ducks in Frederick Harber’s smallholding and also left to dribble down Back Street.