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Star Well and crinoids
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http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/wells/wilts/starwell.htm

I don't think this site is on TMA (though have submitted it) shown as 'Holy Well' on the OS map (see link above). Visited last Saturday with a couple of friends.

We had been told that star shaped fossils could be found in the water so went 'fishing for stars'. We found out subsequently that these fossils are known locally as petrified elderflowers and when we eventually found some that is just what they look like. Anyway initially we had no luck and were about to give up when a little family appeared. The man waved cheerily at us and came over. He generously showed us how to find these tiny star shaped fossils which were in the mud banks at the side of the spring rather than in the water.

I asked the man, who was quite young, how he knew about the spring and the fossils. He replied his wife played there as a child, so did her mother and her grandmother, so they thought they would bring their own children along too.

This is clearly an ancient well - John Aubrey has written about it. These days the ambience is spoilt by the close proximity of electricity pylons.


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tjj
Posted by tjj
4th July 2012ce
00:37

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