When he left Balscote, Dr. John Rivers very kindly gave me a map of field names around the village, drawn by his wife Ruth in 1983. A section of it (see illustration) shows the land south of Manor Farm, down the hill towards Shutford. It is particularly interesting to compare the field names with those on earlier maps, such as that drawn in 1794 for Sir Richard Cope, whose farm it then was (1) , and with a map of 'Balscot Towne' drawn by Henry Dormer for Trinity College, Oxford in 1684 (2) .
The bedrock around Balscote is ironstone, an iron-bearing porous limestone, and beneath that is an impervious clay. Where the two meet there are springs, such as those at the bottom of Chapel Lane, and under the Slade, where rises the stream which once filled Balscote's Pond, sadly long since filled-in. Early Ordnance Survey maps of Balscote show various wells, springs and water pumps located around the village. (3) This supply of water must have impressed Baell and his family, who settled here some time before the Normans came in 1066, and after whom the village is named. (4)
Almost at the bottom of the map is a field named Holly Wells, and below it Ram Meadow. Both take their name from the spring here. This 'Ram' is not a male sheep, but a hydraulic ram once installed here to pump water back up the hill to the village. People and livestock need water, and its gift appearance in springs has a hint of the supernatural about it. Springs, and their seeming connection with the underworld have long fascinated us. Clear, clean and cold, the water flows never-endingly. No wonder that some might think that a draught of such water might be more than just refreshing. It might have curative properties, perhaps even miraculous ones in some cases. It has long been known that certain wells and springs had such a reputation, and even in pre-historic times people deposited items of value there, either in thanks for perceived favours, or to placate deities who might have power over health or crops. Even now, we still chuck coins into fountains or wells and make a wish.
On the 1794 map the field is in two parts, named Upper and Lower Holywell, the latter being the former name for Ram Meadow, and the spring is shown, complete with an area of boggy ground around it. It is named Holywell Spring. In 1684 Henry Dormer drew two separate springs here, the upper one being labelled Holly Well.
Did this spring once have a curative or magical reputation known to the people who toiled in the fields around, or was it just named after a nearby Holly bush?
(1) Oxford Record Office, Ref P432/3/Y1/1
(2) Trinity College Archives.
(3) Ordnance Survey 1882
(4) Gelling, Place-names of Oxfordshire, 1971
(c) Robert Caldicott 2010