Hi y'all
Not sure if this is in the appropriate records already but just been
given some 'oral history' about a St Ann's well at Thurgaton in
Nottinghamshire.
My informant stayed at 'Spital Farm' (SK 688480) in the early 1950s
and was told by a woman then in her mid-90s (i.e. born circa 1885)
that the well and stream ('which never dried up in the driest
summer') was known as St Ann's Well.
The 'spital' from which the farm takes its name was the hospital of
the nearby Thurgaton Priory.
The old lady said that there was a pilgrimage from Coventry to
Southwell (via Nottingham) which stopped at this well (and the
pilgrims would presumably cross the Trent at the nearby Hoveringham ferry).
All this is clearly oral history and needs checking. The only
partially-relevant information I came up with by Googling was M.W
Beresford's work on the lost villages of Notts which states that the
lost village of Broadbusk is close to the site of Spital Farm at
Thurgaton. (http://www.diplomate.freeserve.co.uk/dmv.htm).
Anyone know more about this well already?
Bob
