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The Wellsprings Fellowship is a group of individuals who are inspired by well sites all over Wales and seek to preserve them. We are interested in all well sites whether an ancient churchyard well, or a community water spout and trough. We collect and disseminate information about well sites and welcome information or enquiries about them.
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What do we do? The Wellsprings Fellowship seeks to:
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In Monmouthshire we have published a walk leaflet which links
a number of ancient and interesting wells together - The Virtuous Well at Trellech, St Tewdrig's Well at Mathern and many others. The Virtuous
Well is a fascinating site, and we would welcome contact from local people
interested in caring for and helping to restore it.
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Contact Us Jan Shivel (secretary) |
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The
convenience of mains water supplies has caused us to neglect our
traditional water sources. Many of the local wells and springs
that served our communities are overgrown, drained, diverted or
disappeared. Many of these old water sources have ancient roots.
In Wales in particular well sites have been places of reverence and
worship and the scene of many historic events. Thousands of years
ago, these water sources were marked in the landscape by megaliths.
Celtic people revered water sources as entrances to 'the other world'
and marked them with stone heads. Romans worshipped at wells and
channelled the waters for engineering projects. Celtic Christian
Saints were associated with water sources by their miracles and
martyrdom. Christian converts were baptised in them. The Normans
in their castles depended on them to withstand sieges. The
Georgians and Victorians took the waters at various spa towns.
Throughout time generations have sought healing from wells for physical
or spiritual pain.
In neighbouring Breconshire we have been busy researching a
new walking route St Eluned's Way. St Eluned was a 6th century saint,
who was beheaded after many trials and tribulations by an unsuccessful
suitor. Where her head landed, below Slwch Tump hillfort, a spring
emerged from the ground, that became a site of pilgrimage and healing.
There was a chapel on the site until the Dissolution, but all that now
remains are grassy mounds and a
large
ash tree. The well site was filled in during the last 100 years, but
there are hopes that it can be excavated and restored. We have
re-traced St Eluned's footsteps to create this walking route which, as it
travels along ancient paths and pilgrims tracks, recreates the atmosphere of
the Dark Ages. We were delighted when The Breconshire Brewery
contacted us and asked if they could create a summer beer for walkers of St
Eluned's Way. The Sarn Eluned beer is available in pubs all over
Breconshire. Each year on or around August
1st, St Eluned's feast day, and the ancient Celtic Harvest Festival of
Lammas, we organise a walk to well sites associated with her. The
2007 walk will take place on Sunday 5th August beginning at 2.15 pm outside
Pilgrims restaurant Cathedral Close Brecon. You will be welcome to
join us.