THE remains of what appears to be an old well have been discovered in Almondbury.

And local historian Austin Holroyd thinks it may date back to before the 1500s.

The well was bricked up into the wall of a now-disused workshop at the top of St Helen's Gate.

Renovation has now uncovered what is thought to be St Helen's Well.

It is mentioned in local landowner John Kaye's diary, which is now in the Folgar Shakespeare Museum in Washington DC.

In 1547 he wrote about Henry VIII's suppression of the Catholic faith and how he and his father, Arthur Kaye, pulled down the old chapel of St Helen's and rebuilt it as a grammar school - the now King James's School.

John Kaye wrote: "Where his (Arthur's) ancestors built a chapel of old time in the lane end above the butts at St Helen's Well . . . and he and I did shift it, and by consent of the parish did translate the same into the school house that now is."

Mr Holroyd, 78, of Dark Lane, Almondbury, said he was not sure the newly-discovered well was the one mentioned, but it was in the right place.

He added:

"I am not sure what will happen to it now, but I would hope it is made into some kind of feature."