Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

Everything is changing in Rossmore. No longer a sleepy Irish town, nowadays it's a prosperous place, so busy that a new bypass has been proposed.

The people of Rossmore are divided, particularly since the road will go right through the Whitethorn Woods and the well dedicated to St Ann - a well thought by some to have spiritual properties, and by others dismissed as a superstition.

Well-meaning curate Father Brian Flynn has no idea which faction to support. Neddy Nolan is being offered compensation for his land - but has a personal reason to save the well. Then there's the childless London woman who came to the Whitethorn Woods, begging the saint for help, with the most unexpected consequences . . .