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The place name of Hallowell suggests an Anglo-Saxon link and there is indeed a well here. The current well house, which was put in place about 6 years ago, replaced a stone structure which was in poor repair and a risk to passers by; behind the locked timber door is a dripping well and a small stone basin. Very little local information about the well which is adjacent to woodland believed to have been owned by the monks of Buckland Abbey who may have had fishponds nearby. Despite the Anglo-Saxon holy well name, a recently discovered priest's itinerary of 1450 names the settlement here as Aller wylle ( alder well) and so there is doubt about a holy tradition. Nevertheless the itinerary confirms the presence of an ancient well site. A 19th century record identifies a holy well in this parish as "being under the church wall" and with the curious name "Basil" which may be a reference to the saint of that name who introduced monasticism to Asia Minor; no real evidence or local knowledge of this well today.
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