[1] They noted that the small chamber 'filled with clear water issuing from a fissure in the rock, at a constant 53 °F, and left from another opening feeding the presumed conduit.

[5] The authors suggested that the well is too deep and restricted for a mikveh and too far from the medieval Jewish quarter, in the centre of the town.

[6] Hillaby and Sermon suggest that the well was a bet tohorah used to cleanse bodies before burial in the nearby Jewish cemetery at Brandon Hill which was established after 1177.

Writing in 1861, the historian George Pryce wrote that Jacob's Well lay close by 'the “Jews Acre”, or burial ground, where now stands Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, on digging the foundation for which, a few years ago, a number of gravestones were found, with inscriptions in Hebrew characters; they were, however, thoughtlessly used in the building'[8] The precise location of the Jews Acre (also referred to as the 'Jews Churchyard') was identified in 2007, using eighteenth and nineteenth century maps and plans of the area.

The Commission noted that the water, which also fed the Cathedral and the Grammar School, was of good quality but the volume was not enough to supply the city.

[15] Jacob's Well was rediscovered in 1987 by the Bristol Temple Local History Group, who were investigating the site during the rebuilding of a furniture workshop which had been the Hotwells Police Station bicycle shed, and a one-time fire engine house.