1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 777-779,
Once againe for a husband, & in faith Celanta I have got the start of you; Belike husbands growe by the Well side […]
1891, W. B. Yeats, Representative Irish Tales, New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Volume I, Dedication, p. iv,
A honied ringing! under the new skies
They bring you memories of old village faces,
Cabins gone now, old well-sides, old dear places,
And men who loved the cause that never dies.
The side of a well.
1902, F. St. George Mivart, “Report on the General Sanitary Circumstances and Administration of the Stroud Rural and Nailsworth Urban Districts” in Thirteenth Annual Report of the Local Government Board: Supplement containing the Report of the Medical Officer for 1900-01, London, App. A, No. 11, p. 130,
Many wells were seen which are evidently liable to pollution from the direct passage into them of filth from the surface of the ground […] in some cases dripping or trickling was noticed at the wellsides, in others the sides were heavily grown with vegetation.