At around 6 a.m. in summer (later in winter because of the dark mornings) the women of Glastonbury used to gather at the well to draw the day’s supply of water and exchange the day’s supply of news. The men of the town remained in their comfortable chauvinistic beds, idly waiting for the women to return and make them breakfast. As a result, the Glastonbury women were the only ones who knew what was going on in the world, while the men had to rely on a heavily censored version of events passed on to them by their wives. No man ever went to the well in the mornings, partly because it was not the done thing, and partly because men then, as now, were terrified of large congregations of women.
– Grail Quest: Voyage of Terror, by JH Brennan