Holywell Lake
Somerset


Before the coming of the Motorways, the A38 trunk road into the West Country was notorious for its traffic jams and Bank Holiday motoring misery. The much less-used road is still there today. Three miles west of Wellington, shortly before crossing into Devon, there is a signpost on the right indicating the nearby village of Holywell Lake. The writer Ethelbert Horne in his book "Somerset Holy Wells" (1923) explained that the Holywell Lake in this village is in the garden opposite the Holywell Inn, the word 'Lake' having its old meaning - a stream or small river. He also noted that until 1770 the village was called 'Holloway'.


Photo: Rod Morris

The Parish Church for Holywell Lake is actually in the smaller hamlet of Thorne St Margaret just up the hill, next to a farm and a small cluster of pretty houses. Inside the church hangs a Roll of Honour from the Great War listing 20 men of Holywell Lake who went to fight as follows:


Thorne St. Margaret - St. Margaret's Church
Photo: Rod Morris


Photo: Rod Morris

Roll of Honour

The Men from Holywell Lake who responded
To the call of King and Country during
The Great War 1914-1918
and all returned

Reginald Anthus Army Service Corps
Sidney C Bennett A.S.C. Motor Transport
Frederick Bishop 4th Dragoon Guards
William Blaker Somerset Light Infantry
Charles Burge Royal Naval Air Service
Harry J Gamlin Army Service Corps
Albert Haynes Somerset Light Infantry
William Harford Royal Garrison Artillery
Walter Haynes Royal Engineers
Gilbert Jennings Royal Navy
Harold Jennings Royal Navy
Alfred Johnson Army Service Corps
Frederick N Nash Hampshire Regiment
Ernest Percy North Somerset Yeomanry CC
Walter J Tarr Canadian Army Medical Corps
George Troake Army Service Corps
Frederick Westcott Somerset Light Infantry
Harry Wright Devonshire Regiment
Harold L Woodbury A.S.C. Motor Transport
John Wood Mounted Military Police

The villagers today still maintain that the Holy Water of the village spring helped to bring back their men from the maelstrom of the Great War - most certainly Holywell Lake is a very Thankful Village.

Return to the "Thankful Villages" article