Well well well

Credit: Prosiect Wici Mon, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Credit: Arthur C Harris, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

St Dyfnog is said to have stood in the spring’s cold water flow wearing a bristly hairshirt

Credit: Llewelyn2000, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

Where holy waters spring forth

North Wales has a fascinating history when it comes to holy wells. Dene Bebbington finds out more…

Water is essential to life and a convenience available at the twist of a tap or the cap of a bottle. However, for our ancestors life was harder and safe water not readily accessible. Besides being a source of drinking water, natural springs were believed to have healing powers. According to folklore even dew could be used to treat sore eyes.

If you’ve ever driven along the South Stack road below Holyhead Mountain on Anglesey you may have noticed an odd, decaying brick structure with a dome. This housing over Ffynnon y Wrach – the Witches Well – dates back to 1866. Its sinister name may have derived from stories of witches gathering by druid stones.

The legend didn’t deter the people of Anglesey who suffered poor sanitation and water shortages in the mid-19th Century though. To help remedy this, the Holyhead Waterworks Company established in 1865 obtained rights to the well and built the octagonal housing. Although some wealthy people had water piped to their homes, most had to fetch it from street taps.

Superstitions about wells were common and many became holy sites of water worship. Often they were named after saint, and in Christian times a church was usually built nearby. At Ffynnon Beuno in Tremeirchion, Denbighshire, which is sited on a pilgrim trail there’s been a church since at least the year 1240. The well named after the 6th Century St Beuno (patron saint of sick children) lies in the garden of a private house, while water runs out through a carved head which may be a representation of the saint. Ffynnon Beuno has a connection to another saint since it’s on the pilgrim route of St Winefride.

Belief in the healing power of water is a tradition which continues today at St Winefride’s Well in Holywell. Known as the Lourdes of Wales, it attracts pilgrims from around the world because it’s claimed to have cured people throughout history. In 1606 the water supposedly cured Sir Roger Bodenham of a gross tumour in the legs and, centuries later in 1805, cured a paralysed servant girl – coincidentally named Winefrid. The miraculous effects of the water is said to stem from a grisly historical act when St Winefride was beheaded by a prince for rejecting his advances. Legend tells that a spring rose from where her head fell and her uncle, St Beuno,

SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT WELLS WERE COMMON AND MANY BECAME HOLY SITES OF WATER WORSHIP. OFTEN THEY WERE NAMED AFTER SAINT, AND IN CHRISTIAN TIMES A CHURCH WAS USUALLY BUILT NEARBY

Credit: Chris Andrews, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

St Winefride’s Well in Holywell has been a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years and is known as the Lourdes of Wales

Credit: Richard Croft, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

THE USE OF WELLS FOR SUPPLYING DRINKING WATER FIZZLED OUT IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY AS MORE HOMES WERE CONNECTED TO THE MAINS SUPPLY

brought her back to life. The well is remembered in the old rhyme Seven Wonders of Wales:

Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham Steeple, Snowdon’s mountain without its people, Overton yew trees, St Winefride’s Well, Llangollen Bridge and Gresford bells.

Wales is dotted with hundreds of wells, with over 400 named after saints. Suprisingly, Ffynnon Santes Fair – St Mary’s Well – in Llanrhos outside Llandudno isn’t dedicated to St Hilary despite being close to St Hilary’s Church. In an accident of history, it was originally named after St Hilairy then rededicated to St Mary by monks who controlled the church in 1350. Over a century later King Henry VIII forcibly cut off links to Catholicism and the papacy, reverting the church’s dedication to St Hilary. But the well was overlooked and retained its name.

Many old structures once built around springs have been left to crumble, while others have fared better or been preserved. In the village of Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch a hillside spring feeds St Dyfnog’s well. Folklore tells that he lived ascetically and did penance by wearing a bristly hairshirt

St Seiriol’s Well at Penmon, Anglesey, was marked on 19th Century maps as a wishing well

Credit: Jonathan Oldenbuck, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

bathing pool and rooms had been built for those who’d been drawn in the hope of curing their ailments such as pox. Though the rooms are long gone, the bathing pool remains and the Cymdeithas Cadwraeth Llanrhaeadr YC Preservation Society hopes to preserve it.

The use of wells for supplying drinking water fizzled out in

the early 20th Century as more homes were connected to the mains supply. A few such as St Winefride’s still attract people in search of healing, a tradition also surviving in wishing wells. As children many of us have done the ritual of making a wish then throwing a coin into the well for the wish to be granted.

We can’t totally discount ancestral beliefs in water’s healing power as there may be an element of truth where coins had been thrown in. The oligodynamic effect of various metals, including copper and silver that were used in coins can act as a biocide, killing harmful bacteria and possibly making the water safer to drink.nstanding under the flow of cold water. By the 18th Century a

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