York's hidden history: story of medieval gem Jacob's Well

ONE day in the year 1549, a rather soberly-dressed 69-year-old lady crossed the threshold of a small house in Trinity Lane which came to be known as Jacob’s Well. Her name was Isabella Warde and some years previously she’d been dismissed from her job as Prioress of Clementhorpe Priory.

In fact, the whole priory had been closed down in 1536 by order of King Henry VIII at what was known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The eight nuns that made up the priory had been given a small pension each of £1.6s 8d a year. But Isabella, the prioress, fared slightly better. She’d been given an annual pension of £6.13s.4d and had bought the house in Trinity Lane where she continued to live until her death in 1569.

In 1566, three years before she died, Isabella made a Deed of Gift of the house to the Feoffees (or Trustees) of Holy Trinity. The agreement between Isabella and the Feoffees stipulated that they should provide relief for the poor on All Souls’ Day each year.

Isabella was allowed to live on in the house for a peppercorn rent of one red rose a year. Jacob’s Well was divided into two parts, and it’s known that Isabella lived in the house with her sister. We also know that her brother had been a monk in the adjacent Benedictine Priory of Holy Trinity.

In his 1904 leaflet, The Preservation of a Historic House in York, the Revd John Solloway, Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, writes of traditions surrounding the origins of Jacob’s Well.

One tradition was that the house dated back to the time of the Crusades and that on their return from the Holy Land, the Crusaders had settled at or near Jacob’s Well. Jacob’s Well, or the Well of Sychar, is recorded in the bible as the place where Jesus is said to have spoken to a Samaritan woman.

Children play in front of Jacob's Well, Trinity Lane, York in 1930s. Photo from Explore York archive

Archaeologists and historians, however, concur that the present house was built around 1474 as lodgings for two chantry priests. Chantry priests were specially employed to offer masses for the repose of the souls of the dead at least three times a week.

For a while, the house was the residence of the Rector of the nearby St. Martin-cum-Gregory, now a redundant church, and in the early 17th century, Jacob’s Well was the Rectory for Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate. Around this time a first floor was added along with new windows and fireplaces. It seems that once again, the house was divided into two parts.

In 1740, the house was converted into an alehouse. Fifty years later, Jacob’s Well reverted to being a house and was leased by Roger Glover and John Furnish who ran a stagecoach business. It was they who obtained fire insurance for the building, and you can still see the sun mark of the insurance company on an inside wall. In 1815, they added a third storey and an extension to house a kiln. Later still, Jacob’s Well became a pub once again but it wasn’t a commercial success, perhaps because of its relatively hidden location, and in 1903, its licence to sell alcohol was surrendered.

The Revd John Solloway wrote in 1904 that the Charity Commissioners had given him permission to purchase Jacob’s Well for £300 and he estimated that a considerable sum would be required to carry out necessary repairs given the sad state of the building’s dilapidation. He made a formal appeal for subscriptions towards the £450 required for the purchase money and the necessary repairs. Solloway intended the building to be used for classes of various kinds.

View of the Hall on the first floor of Jacob's Well. By David Wilson

In 1905, Walter Harvey Brook, a friend of Solloway’s, made major alterations to the building. He added a new staircase, bay window and fireplace, and installed a new door to the garden at the rear. At this time, a 15th-century canopy was added to the main entrance. This was taken from the Old Wheatsheaf Inn which had stood on Davygate. Since the 1950s, the Rector and Churchwardens of Holy Trinity, Micklegate have been the administrative trustees of Jacob’s Well and it’s served as their parish room

Fast forward to the 1980s, and the building was in danger of collapse, partly caused by the vibrations from the traffic passing along Trinity Lane. Measures taken to secure the building were the removal of the brick top storey of the house, and the installation of a new roof. The work was finally completed in 1991 and for several years Jacob’s Well again served as the parish room of Holy Trinity, Micklegate.

But times change. And once more, this venerable building was put to a variety of uses. The present priest-in-charge, the Revd Simon Askey, told me that Jacob’s Well has in the past been used as the regular venue for meetings of the York Gild of Butchers. Currently, the house is hired by groups as diverse as the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), who hold their meetings there twice a month; The Poetry Society; The Fabian Society; and the WI. And I was told that even Arthur Scargill was an admirer of the house when a spokesperson for the Socialist Labour Party phoned to inquire about its availability for a meeting.

David Wilson is a community writer with The Press