Gildingwells
Gildingwells is another late addition to Villages as it does not appear in the Geographia on which I based my research. The village is about 12 miles from the centre of Rotherham. As a child I was fascinated by this place name, together with Wallingwells which is just over the border in Nottinghamshire. Both villages together with Letwell are named after the water supply which enable these small settlements to come into and stay in existence. In Celtic times the gods of the well and spring were worshipped and offerings were made to ensure that the water kept flowing. These are still celebrated today in some Derbyshire villages as 'Well Dressings'. Gildingwells apparently means gushing spring (Wallingwells means bubbling spring). There is a well just south of the village and a spring which is the source of the Owlands Wood Brook.
The village is first mentioned in a deed of 1318 as Gildanwell. It did not feature as a separate township for assessment in the 1379 Poll Tax returns. Records indicate that in 1402 William Terrington and Ellen his wife granted a lease of their manor of Gildingwells to Hugh Cressy for life. Land at Gildingwells was also held by the the Benedictine nunnery at Wallingwells. By the early 19th century, almost all the land in the parish was in the hands of St Ledger of Park Hall, Firbeck. Sir Thomas W. White of Wallingwells is recorded as lord of the manor in 1881. The village is a small hamlet without a church and was part of the parish of Laughton, and then of Throapham St. John until 1841 when it became part of the new parish of Woodsetts.