Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
17130
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
01/08/1996
Date of Amendment
01/08/1996
Name of Property
Gumfreyston Wells
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Pembrokeshire
Community
St. Florence
Town
Tenby
Locality
Gumfreyston
Easting
210931
Northing
201088
Street Side
Location
At the S corner of the churchyard of St Lawrence at Gumfreyston.
Description
Broad Class
Water Supply and Drainage
Period
History
Gumfreston is traditionally Eglwys Gunniau, birthplace of St Teilo in the 5C, and the present church is probably on a much older church site. The proximity of the wells to the church suggests this is a clear instance of a Christian site chosen in the Dark Ages to absorb an earlier pagan well-cult. There are three wells in a small group, apparently originating in two natural springs.
It was customary down to the C17 for bent pins to be dropped into the water to mark the end of Lent; the practice was called 'throwing Lent away'. The reputation of the wells continued down to the C19; Gosse, who visited in 1861, says that traditionally the lowest of the three had a healing reputation, and leading down to this there was a worn masonry step. Some attempts were as made by fashionable physicians in the C19 to promote the healing properties of the water on medical grounds for invalid visitors to Tenby, but they came to nothing.
Exterior
A group of natural springs with carefully formed stonework around each. There are three shallow wells, the water of which flows together into one stream and leaves the churchyard to the S. The stonework simply confines the wells and the channel through which they run together; there is no superstructure. The water of the one nearest the church was described by Gosse as pure spring-water, the other two as of chalybeate type, i.e. impregnated with iron, and exceptionally soft and naturally sparkling, with red sediment and occasional eruptions of gas.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed as ancient holy wells forming an historically important group with the church.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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