Holywell is a tiny settlement in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Careby Aunby and Holywell Careby Aunby and Holywell is a civil parish in the district of South Kesteven, south-west Lincolnshire, in England. It stretches from the county border with Rutland in the west to the River West Glen in the east. The B1176 road from Corby Glen p ...

, in the South Kesteven

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England. It lies north from Stamford and south-west from Bourne. It is a collection of houses around a country house and park. The park includes a small private church dedicated to

St Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...

. Ornamental lakes have been restored over the last 20 years, and new gardens laid out. In 2009 the gardens were open to the public through the National Garden Scheme. Two venerated springs are reported in the village, Holy Well and St Winifred's. Only the location of the first is known. There are no other place names associated with venerated springs in Lincolnshire, although other Holy Wells exist such as those near the site of

Sempringham Priory Sempringham Priory was a priory in Lincolnshire, England, located in the medieval hamlet of Sempringham, to the northwest of Pointon. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are i ...

and nearby Ryhall.

History

Geograph-1238066-St-Wilfreds-Holywell-by-Wendy-Parkinson

The 1885 ''

Kelly's Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in England that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses ...

'' notes that Holywell with Aunby consists of with chief agricultural of barley and wheat, and an 1881 population of 63, and that "a medicinal spring rises here from where the place takes its name". Holywell Hall, a mansion in "well-wooded park", was then the seat of Charles Thomas Samuel Birch-Reynardson DL,

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, and sole landowner. The chapel in the park, a small stone building in Early English style, was reconstructed in reign of Queen Anne. It comprises a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

and two-bell

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

. A restoration of 1863-64 included the replacement of a previous flat roof with one of open timber, with the church interior re-fitted in oak, "effected under the superintendence of rector Rev J B Reynardson".''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire with the port of Hull'' 1885, p. 483 In 1916 ''Cox'' stated that Holywell is a chapelry of Careby parish. The church in Holywell Hall grounds was moved in 1699 from a site east of the Castle Bytham road 'between the bridge and the mill' where it had been subject to frequent flooding. It incorporates material from the destroyed church of Aunby, including two

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

piers that support the tower, a Decorated doorway and a window glazed with

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style glass.Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' p. 168; Methuen & Co. Ltd. ''

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

'' adds that St Wilfrid's church stands south of Holywell Hall as one of its garden ornaments, has an east window with a mosaic of small fragments from the 15th to 19th centuries, and a

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...

and

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. R ...

dated 1662.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'' pp. 575, 576; Penguin, (1964); revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press. St Wilfrid's is

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed.

Holywell Hall

Holywell Hall is a Grade II* listed 17th-century country house, built on the site of an older medieval

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

. It was built in three phases. Beginning as an L-shaped house, it was extended in either 1732 or 1764, and again in the early 19th century. The west front of the house is possibly from 1764, and the south and east fronts from the 19th century. In 1728, it was bought from the Goodhall family by Lady Mary Barnadiston, née Reynardson, for her nephew Samuel Reynardson. Reynardson may have laid out the gardens, and built the temples in

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style in 1732, the time of his marriage. South-west of the house, against a lake, is a Grade II* listed fishing temple with

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

ed Roman Doric portico and rusticated windows. It is identical to the menagerie designed by

James Gibbs James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...

at Hackwood and published in his 1728 "Book of Architecture". Facing the hall's drive are listed Palladian stables with an octagonal domed lantern. Further listed buildings are a 17th-century

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

, an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

to the west of the hall, and a three-arched

balustraded A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

bridge on the road between two easterly lakes. In 1954 the Hon. Mrs Mountjoy Fane (Agatha Isabel Acland-Hood-Reynardson) sold the hall with 69 acres to Philip Lockwood who owned Lockwood Foods Ltd. Mrs Fane retained ownership of several hundred acres of farm land. In 1977 Philip Lockwood emigrated to France and the Hall was then occupied by his son, William Lockwood. In 1984 the hall was sold to Keith Childs who had a shoe import business, Holywell Footwear Ltd, based at the Hall. In 1994 the hall and 830-acre estate was sold to Princess Yuri

Galitzine The House of Golitsyn or Galitzine was one of the largest princely of the noble houses in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire. Among them were boyars, warlords, diplomats, generals (the Mikhailovichs), stewards, chamberlains, the richest ...

(Dr. Jean Shanks) for £4m. In 2003 it was sold to Robert Gillespie for £7m. In October 2013 the hall with approximately 76 acres was sold for £4.7m to a company based in the British Virgin Islands, Slipstream Overseas SA. The farmland of 863 acres was sold separately for approx. £6.25m. File:Holywell, Lincolnshire - House and road.jpg, Road through Holywell File:Holywell, Lincolnshire - Lake 01.jpg, Lake at Holywell File:Holywell, Lincolnshire - Lake 02.jpg, Lake at Holywell

Conservation areas

At the western boundary with Rutland, at Lincolnshire Gate, lies the small nature reserve of Robert's Field. Farmland at Holywell Banks () has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest."Holywell Banks"
Sssi.naturalengland.org.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2011

Other holy wells nearby

* Ryhall *

Greetham, Rutland Greetham is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The village's name means 'homestead/village which is gravelly' or 'hemmed-in land which is gravelly'. The village is on the B668 road between t ...

Skillington Skillington is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2021 census was 314. It is situated west from the A1 road, south from Grantham, and is within of the ...

: Fish well *

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

: Our Lady's well

References

External links

*
"Holywell"

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2011
"Holywell"
Homepages.which.net. Retrieved 12 December 2011
"Holy Well (Careby and Aunby)"
Megalithic.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2011
National Garden Scheme
Retrieved 12 December 2011 {{Authority control Hamlets in Lincolnshire Holy wells in England South Kesteven District