Holywell is a tiny settlement in the civil parish of

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 ...

, 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of Lincolnshire, England. It lies north from Stamford and south-west from Bourne. It is a collection of houses around a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

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 and nearby

Ryhall Ryhall is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is situated close to the eastern boundary of the county, about 2 miles (3 km) north of Stamford. The parish includes the hamlet of Belm ...

History

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

The 1885 '' Kelly's Directory'' 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, 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. Ove ...

, nave, 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, parl ...

and two-bell tower. 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 A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the commu ...

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

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

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 can ...

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

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'' (19 ...

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

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

portico and rusticated windows. It is identical to the

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to the ...

designed by James Gibbs 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, 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 larg ...

to the west of the hall, and a three-arched balustraded 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 A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle o ...

."Holywell Banks"
Sssi.naturalengland.org.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2011

Other holy wells nearby

Greetham, Rutland Greetham is a village and Civil parishes in England, 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 ...

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 th ...

: Fish well * Oakham: 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