The Old Wife’s Well

From the forum May 2005
the Old Wifes well is lovely and is one of those wells that has a very strong case for having prehistoric origins. The name alone qualifies it as all of the other sites on the NYM that have the Old Wifes name tagged on them have prehistoric associations. Couple this to the fact that the well sits on the edge of a large Mesolithic occupation site which also showed evidence of continued occupation throughout the Neolithic and early Bronze Age where this would have been the only nearby source of water. Add to that the fact that the well is situated beside the route of Wades Causeway the ‘Roman road’ (aka The Old Wifes Way) which has recently be a source of some speculation as to whether parts of the causeway pre date the roman road, one eminent archaeo has gone so far as to suggest that the section of the causeway that runs across Wheeldale may in fact be a Neolithic linear monument.