NARRATIVE
ON PRINT - Hays Well derives its name from
'The Hays,' formerly meadow lands, situated
to the east of the Abbey precinct. The present
well, which was erected in 1841, by public
subscription, took the place of an older structure.
The Abbey was supplied with water from springs
in the Hays.
The water was conveyed in a two-inch lead
pipe, a piece of which was recovered during
the excavations that were being made in the
neighbourhood of the Abbey Green in March
1879. The water was carried to a handsome
reservoir, which stood a little south of the
Abbey Churchabout the Abbey Greenand
which is said to have been destroyed about
the beginning of the eighteenth century by
the Rev. John Ferguson, minister of Arbroath,
who constructed a tomb for himself with its
stones. About the year 1779 the tomb was in
turn demolished by order of the Magistrates,
who appropriated its materials to build a
cell in connection with a Town House and prison
which they erected in 1780. (Notes
by George Hay, 1883)
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