William Fitz Guy was a principal tenant Gervase de Paynel or Pagnell, who held the lordship of Dudley, his grandfather having married Beatrice,[REF] daughter of William Fitz-Ansculf the great territorial magnate who held much of the Midlands after the Norman Conquest.
It seems that a hermitage[REF] stood at the site, next to the well which gives the place its name, for some time before the priory itself was established.