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escargot1 Joined: 24 Aug 2001 Total posts: 17895 Location: Farkham Hall Age: 4 Gender: Female |
 Posted: 22-08-2013 13:43 Post subject: Re: not exactly a lost well but... |
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| TheQuixote wrote: | | Quote: |
Pilgrims flock to 'healing' well
About 1,000 pilgrims are expected at a Christian shrine in north Wales which has been attracting visitors since the 7th Century.
Last year, people from as far away as New Zealand came to St Winefride's Well in Holywell, which is said to have healing powers.
The legend of the well tells how a local chieftain beheaded the maiden Winefride after she rejected him.
A spring is then said to have risen from where her head fell.
According to legend, where Winefride's head had fallen, "the stones surrounding the fountain were stained forever with her blood, and the blood falling in the water coloured also the moss that grows there and which has the perfume of frankincense, though some say of violets."
St Winefride's is the only site which has remained an unbroken destination for pilgrims, with the others having been disturbed by Henry VIII.
It is also said to be the finest example in Britain of a medieval holy well, and, of course, it gave the local town its name.
Pilgrims will walk to the shrine from Wells Street on Sunday afternoon, followed by an open-air mass, and a benediction and veneration of a statue of St Winefride.
The well is regarded both as one of the seven wonders of Wales, and as the nation's equivalent of Lourdes.
The well's biggest crisis was in 1917 when it ran dry.
It was a result of tunnelling by a lead mining company which drained the water into the river Dee, but supplies were restored later that year when another underground stream was diverted.
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BBCi News 27/06/04 |
I visited this well yesterday, en route to somewhere else. It was well worth the 80p I was charged! 
St Winifride's Well website
The spring itself is quite beautiful to see, bubbling up from a pebbly riverbed under a stone chapel-type building. There's a museum with a couple of alleged martyr skeletons on display and you can bathe in the holy pool to ease your condition, should you wish. Looked cold to me though.
My colleagues, ladies like me of a certain age, immediately tried to splash the holy water onto themselves. This is quite hard to do as it's all fenced off and you'd have to lie flat on the stone surround to reach it. Which they all did, including one with quite severe knee problems. As you can probably guess, I didn't bother. 
It all felt much more pagan than Christian to me and I was content to watch the lovely moving water.
Earlier this year we watched a TV series about British holy water sites and the presenter bathed in this very one. He said it was FREEZING just before he submerged himself, to get the full benefit, y'know. Wish I could remember the name of the series so I could look on youtube.
Anyway, just thought I'd better report my visit!
Hooo - edit - here's the TV programme about it, with a bone-chillingly cold-looking clip.  |
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