Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/186

 152 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9»s. VL A™. 25, woo The writer, after stating that " the well is situated just within the borough of Accrington, being only a few yards removed from the boundary at Hambledon Wall, near Hambledon Reservoir," gives a lengthy and interesting conversation he recently had with a Mr. Thomas Simpson, who had resided near the well for forty years. I append a few extracts from the conversation :— " Yes; I know Mary Hoyle Well. I remember distinctly when great crowds of people used to gather at it on the first Sunday in May When I was a boy, say sixty years ago. the annual festivals held at the well were in full swing. As snnn as daylight of the first Sunday in May appeared the people began to come to the well in crowds from Accrington, Padiham, Haslingden, Burnley, and other places for miles around I have been at the place myself on some of these occasions. I never remember having heard any suggestion that these gatherings were a survival of what had been pil- grimages in earlier times. Nor do I recollect having heard that the festivals had anything to do with religion. But, of course, the well may in ancient times have been a ' holy' one without my being aware of it. I don't know why it is called ' Mary Hoyle Well." I am not aware how the cus- tom of going to the place annually originated, but in my day the folk who assembled at the well were certainly not there for any religious purpose. They evidently came to enjoy themselves I don't re- that collect having heard that the water of the well was supposed to possess any particular virtue. It was good water, but no better than other springs in the neighbourhood coming out of the rocky nills The festivals at the well were going on in my father's time, and perhaps for hundreds of years before. I have seen members of the crowds drink some of the water because, I suppose, they were thirsty : and others I have seen splashing their faces with it. I never, however, heard any of them say that they expected the water to have any sort of a supernatural effect. At last the well was covered up. That was between thirty and forty years ago—certainly more than thirty. The reason why it was closed was because of the damage to the neighbouring farmers' fences and other pro- perty by the hundreds of folk who came to the annual festivals. At first a flag just about sufficient to cover it was put over the mouth ; but this the people removed, and afterwards a big flag about a ton weight was placed over it. That settled the business. The water which had run into the well was diverted, and found its way to the reservoir by the way the overflow had done previously There appears to be no doubt that the well was known far outside this district, for a man who came to Broad Oak as a block-printer when I was young said he had heard of it in Ireland." This information, which is valuable as em- bodying all that can be learnt of the history of the well and its use during the past sixty years, will, I trust, be of service to MR. BOYLE and others interested in such like matters. But it still leaves his suggestion as to whether " Mare Hole Well" may not be a corruption of " St. Mary's Holy Well" un- touched. However, the following, communi- cated a week later to the same journal, is a step towards accounting for the designations " Mare Hole " and " May Road " :— " Mr. Richard Broughton, the Magistrates' Clerk, tells me that it occurred to him that he had some- where heard or seen the place described as ' Mere Hole Well.' And sure enough, on an old H»r- greares Estate plan, dated about 1820, he after- wards found it to be so marked. This, so far as it goes, confirms the view taken by the writer of the article to the effect that the word ' Hoyle was probably a corruption of the dialect term for rhole,' rather than the name of a family; but whether the ' hole' was a corruption of or contrac- tion for ' holy ' is another matter. Mr. Broughton s theory is that the word ' Mere ' may signify that the well was originally situated near a pool or lake. The transition from ' Mere ' to ' Mare and 'Mary' and 'May' would be intelligible. Mr. Broughton has also put me on the track of the method by which the place came to be marked on the Ordnance maps of 1848 as ' May Road Well.' After the Accrington Reservoir near the well was made it was named the ' Meyroyd Reservoir. Tire ' Mey ' appears to be still another form of ' Mere, and 'Royd' is evidently one of the forms of the word formerly used to signify a clearing in the forest. In his treatise on 'English Surnames Bardsley says : ' In some of these surnames we can trace the early cuttings among the thickly wooded districts where the larger wealds were situated. Our " Royds," or " Rodds," or " Rodes," all hail from some spot ridded of waste wood. Compounds may be found in our " Huntroyds." that is, the clearing for the chase ; "Holroyds," that is, the holly clear- ing.' The place where the well is situated was at one time all forest land, hence the ' Royd ' in the name of the reservoir. It was no great change ' ' ' ' and this . to convert ' Meyroyd ' into ' May Road is obviously what was actually done. and this ^ But none of this throws any light upon the most interesting thing of all in connexion with the well — the origin of the festivals held at it annually on the first Sunday in May." Beyond the points furnished by the corre- spondent of the Accrington Observer, I fear we shall not be able to get much " forrader." Should, however, any further information be forthcoming, I will at once attach it to that given above. But I am unable to accept MR. PEACOCK'S suggestion as to the origin of the name " Merenole," backed though it be by a plausible coincidence between Burringham and East Butterwick. The annual gather- ings at the Accrington well point to some- thing more than mere commemoration of a boundary line—to an historic past in which religion, rather than the placing of land- marks, played an important part. Also, this well was something more than a " wide and deep hole scooped out by the inrush of water." The coincidence of names estab- lishes no topographical affinity. MR. HENRY TAYLOR is probably nearer the truth in identifying it with one of the many "holy