Monument record MDR12317 - Deserted settlement, Upper Locko, Dale Abbey

William Woolley refers to an old house at Upper Locko (as distinct from Nether Locko, the estate of the present Locko Hall). He goes on to say 'There is on the backside of the house a curious well of springing water called St Ann's well which is walled and paved with stone; it feeds the fishponds, runs down by Nether Locko….' A map of 1766, and preliminary sketches for it, allow the site of the house and the well to be identified, the latter lying in an enclosure called Well Croft. It has been suggested that this 'old house' is likely to be part of the site of the Preceptory of the Knights of St Lazarus at Locko. The Locko preceptory was a fairly small unit and probably only survived for 200 years or so; however, it is likely to have survived longer than this in a truncated form, with the buildings possibly reused as a house or farmstead. Lazarite houses were often located on or near parish boundaries and were often close to a spring. The map shows another farmstead only a short distance to the west, joined by the remnant of an old roadway which skirts the southern tip of the present-day large fishpond, a smaller version of which is shown on the 1766 map. This second farmstead may not have been as old, although it is impossible to say with certainty whether only one or both of these settlements was originally included in the confines of the preceptory. A visit to the site found that in the middle of what was Well Croft there was 'a remarkable pear shaped pit with slight evidence of associated stonework at the sides' which was considered to be almost certainly the site of St Ann's well. Some 'random bumps and hollows' were also noted in the area. Some time ago a large trough and a quantity of worked stone - some of it decorated - was removed from Well Croft and stacked up near Locko Park. This was probably the remains of the stone walls and paving alluded to by Woolley; some of it may be of considerable antiquity, though the decorated examples looked to be of 17th or 18th century date. The site visit also identified several large pieces of masonry built into an embankment; it was suggested that the stone probably came from the 'old house' and that some of it may have had its origins in the preceptory. (1)