More News of Holywell

by Fred Sole

This article was originally published in the March 1993 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

Since writing about the terrible result of Thomas ZOUL's cold dismissal of Juliet's favours at Holywell during the 11th century I have managed to add a few more paragraphs to my own family history in that village, albeit many years later.

I knew that my great, great grandfather George SOLE took his family to Holywell about 1840 and that he was a brick maker. Because the village is very small I always assumed that he would have walked to some brick making site nearby, possibly even into St. Ives. Not so. Having at last got around to looking at the 1841 Census for Holywell, and having discovered the existence of a new book about the village, I now know that the community included ten or twelve brick makers.

The Holywell Story by Joe Newell, explains that there was a clay pit and brick firing kilns in the village at that time. The operation was located just behind The Ferry Boat Inn, as were several workers cottages.

The clay pit is now filled in and levelled, the cottages are long gone, and the whole area has become a car park for the (much larger) public house.

I can well imagine my 'old fellow' enjoying a glass at the hostelry after a long, hot day in and around the kilns and I like to think he would approve of my having followed his example!

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