The well is fed by a spring located near the church and has been moved twice, once in 1875 when the land on which it originally stood was purchased to serve as the Glebe from which the parish parson could gain some income. In the early 1900s the parson of the time had it diverted to its present site because of the number of people crossing his glebe to obtain water. The well surround was built using some stone window tracery that had been removed from the church during restoration work in 1861. In 1994 the Dartmoor National Park Authority placed two huge granite slabs on either side of the structure to prevent damage from passing cars.