“The water supply of Plymouth was, in the first place, derived chiefly from wells. Among the names of wells of a more or less public character preserved are Buckwell, Quarrywell, Ladywell, Finewell, Westwell, St Andrew’s Well, Holywell and Martock’s Well. The sites of most of these are known, and they were fairly scattered throughout the town, as it then existed,” wrote RN Worth in 1890.
A century or more later and some of these locations are not so obvious, happily however Worth added a footnote; “A lease of 1631 mentions St Andrews well as ‘lately digged, made, and enclosed’ in the lane leading from Totehyll to Catt Downe. Holywell was east of Longfield Terrace; Martock’s Well west of the way leading from Briton Side to the Maudlyn. Finewell is said to have been in a garden attached to the Prysten House. Westwell was on the west side of that street, near Princesss Square, and when filled up, about 1805, took some cartloads of rubble.”
Clearly one or two of those ancient names have survived to the present day and then there is the nineteenth century name Well Street, a street that would have been fairly new to Worth, but maybe not the ‘well’ itself.
