Since the 7th century the freshwater springs have been regarded as holy wells, and one of the springs is named Daniel's Well after a ninth century monk called Daniel. He is said to have submerged himself in the freezing cold water every day in order to quell fiery passions.

Daniel would have been part of a community of monks living and working at Malmesbury Abbey, which dominated the town from early Saxon times to the sixteenth century. The Abbey was a centre of learning and pilgrimage and once had a spire taller than Salisbury Cathedral. What can be seen today is the third Abbey built on the same site, although most of this was destroyed by a storm in the late fifteenth century. What remained was sold by Henry VIII to William Stumpe, a clothier, during the dissolution. The little that remains of the Abbey today includes a parvise that still holds well-preserved examples of books from the Abbey's library. The Abbey is now used as the parish church.