Jenny Stannywell

Straddling the Roman Ermine Street near Hibbaldstow was a Romano Britian settlement, the walls of which are said to have still been partially visible in the 1700s.  The construction of Ermine Street is thought to have dammed Staniwells spring.  This developed into a pond which has long since been drained.   Abraham de la Pryme visited here at the end of the 17^th century and wrote the following:

‘Not  far  off  of  the  Roman  street  that  runs  by  Hibberstow,  in Hihberstow  Fields,  appears  to  have  been  the  foundations  of  many buildings.  Tradition  says  that  there  has  been  an  old  citty  there. I  asked  all  ways  that  I  could  imagine  to  know  the  name  thereof, but  they  could  not  tell  me.  Not  farr  from  it  is  a  place  where  tradition says  stood  a  great  castle  belonging  to  this  city.  I  then asked  if  there  was  any  old  coins  found  there,  and  they  answer’d some  few  Romans.  I  then  asked  if  there  was  any  springs  hard by,  and  they  answered  that  there  was  two;  the  one  called  Castle Town  spring,  and  the  other  called  Jenny-Stanny  well, perhaps Julius’s  Stony  well.  This  was  undoubtedly  some  Roman  town, because  that  it  is  so  near  the  Roman  street,  etc. [The diary of Abraham De la Pryme 1697]’

By the 19^th century a ghost story had become associated with the area.

‘Among the many other named-wells he [Abraham de la Pryme] mentions is Jenny Stanny Well, near Hibbaldstow Fields, which at the present day is reported to be haunted by a ghost, sometimes described as a woman carrying her head under her arm. This spectre is supposed to be Jenny Stannywell, who once upon a time drowned herself in the water. At least two other well or pond ghosts of the feminine sex are known in Lincolnshire, but so far as is recorded they carry their heads in orthodox fashion. [Examples of Printed Folk-lore Concerning Lincolnshire by Eliza Gutch, Mabel Peacock (1908)]’