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Viewing swaag.org website implies consent to set cookies on your computer. Full details Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Number 1155775
SWAAG Honorary President:
Tim Laurie FSA

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 *****SWAAG_ID***** 732
 Date Entered 24/06/2013
 Updated on 24/06/2013
 Recorded by Will Swales
 Category Stone structure
 Record Type General HER
 SWAAG Site Name 
 Site Type 
 Site Name 
 Site Description 
 Site Access Public Footpath
 Record Date 20/06/2013
 Location West of Grinton village
 Civil Parish Grinton
 Brit. National Grid SE 045 983
 Altitude 190m
 Geology 
 Record Name Nanny Ward's Well
 Record Description On the OS Explorer map, Nanny Ward’s Well is marked in blue and named as a spring. It is identified as being to the west of Grinton village, but its precise location isn’t clear. Fortunately the OS 25-inch map of 1912 is more specific and marks its location very precisely at the junction of two footpaths. It’s where the path from the moor at Blue Ball, which descends the dale side roughly parallel with Grinton Gill, meets the path from the village running westwards across fields to meet Swale Hall Lane. At the junction of the two footpaths there is a spring but it is not the spring head. The water rises about 150 metres higher up the dale side, next to the path from Blue Ball.

At the footpath junction there are the scattered remains of some sort of stone structure, possibly a small dwelling that might have been constructed over the top of the spring, or alongside it. A few metres downstream the spring appears to join the mill race that once brought water from Cogden Gill to power the corn mill on Swale Hall Lane. Conceivably the structure at Nanny Ward’s Well predated the construction of the mill race. But what was it? Perhaps it was a cistern for accumulating the spring water.

And who was Nanny Ward? The name goes back to before 1857 when Nanny Ward’s Well was marked on the first OS map published in that year. The OS surveyors gathered their information from local people. What did they say? Was she simply the purveyor of the cleanest water in town, or did she claim it to have special health-promoting properties? More investigation is required.

See also John Moss’s Chair at record 731
 Dimensions 
 Geographical area 
 Species 
 Scientific Name 
 Common / Notable Species 
 Tree and / or Stem Girth 
 Tree: Position / Form / Status 
 Tree Site ID 0
 Associated Site SWAAG ID 0
 Additional Notes 
 Image 1 ID 4487         Click image to enlarge
 Image 1 Description The site of Nanny Ward's Well looking eastwards to stone remains,the spring and the stile on the footpath from Grinton village
 Image 2 ID 4488         Click image to enlarge
 Image 2 Description Another view of the site of Nanny Ward's Well looking eastwards, showing some of the scattered stone remains.
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