Wellow    is   said   to   be   the   only   village   in   the   country   with   a   green,   as   distinct   from   a grassed   over   market   place.   Most   English   villages   are   mentioned   in   the   Doomsday Book   (1086),   but   not   Wellow   because   it   did   not   exist   then.   The   nearest   villages were   Grimston   (perpetuated   in   Grimston   Hill,   less   than   1m   E)   and   Rufford   to   the SW.   When   Cistercian   monks   came   to   Rufford   in   1145   they   created   the   kind   of   rural seclusion    they    desired    by    buying    out    the    villagers    of    Rufford.    The    displaced peasants   planned   a   new   fortified   village   for   themselves   -   Wellow,   with   a   bank   and ditch   (called   George   Dyke)    ,   all   round   and   a   triangular   green   in   the   centre,   now dominated   by   the   maypole.   On   the   S   and   W   the   defence   is   natural,   a   stream cutting   its   course   deep   in   the   Keuper   marl,   like   a   dumble.   You   can   walk   some   way along   it   at   the   S   end   of   the   village.   The   rest   of   the   circuit   is   a   man-made   bank   and ditch.   It   crosses   the   road   to   Newark   (A616)   at   the   E   end   of   the   village,   opposite   the pinfold. The   green   has   remained   intact   except   that   the   Primitive   Methodists   were   allowed   in   1847   to   build   their   chapel   on   it. Houses   surround   the   green   in   a   pleasantly   unselfconscious   way.   All   are   brick,   except   for   one   with   exposed   timbers,   and facing   the   N   end   of   the   green   is   another,   evidently   timber-framed   under   its   white   rendering,   for   it   has   a   jetty   or   overhang; Wellow   Hall,   on   the   left   as   you   come   in   from   Ollerton,   has   been   restored,   and   its   Georgian   wing   lies   longside   the   road. Towards   Newark   there   are   three   simple   farmhouse   of   the   kind   fashionable   here   in   Georgian   times:   central   doorway,   one window   either   side,   three   windows   upstairs.   chimneys   at   the   gable   end.   The   church,   off   the   green   to   the   E,   is   small,   and was started in the12th century by the villagers themselves. The   track   going   N   from   the   pinfold   leads   to   Jordan   Castle   Farm.   It   takes   its   name   from   an   earthwork   in   the   field   beyond, nearly   ploughed   out   now;   archaeologists   recognize   it   as   a   ring   work,   which   must   have   belonged   to   a   13th   century   Jordan Foliot, lord of Grimston.