Holy well

Today, after the encouragement of Freespiral, I went with Mrs TT in search of the Holy Well at Sempringham.  The priory church dating from about 1100 still stands and contains the holy well in the churchyard (see extras).  The remains of the priory and the old village are now just humps and hillocks in the fields.  It contained the only English established monastic order founded by St Gilbert and then dissolved by Henry VIII.  Gwenllian, the daughter of Llywelyn the last ruling Prince of Wales ("Llywelyn The Last") spent 52 years there. . After Llywelyn's death, the whole of Wales came under the control of King Edward I of England. Edward ordered Gwenllian, a 1-year old baby, to be imprisoned in an English convent so that she would not have children who might restore Welsh independence. There she remained until her death 53 years later.  The priory was, in its heyday, the size of Westminster Abbey. We were extremely lucky to see inside the church as it was the saint's feast day and it had been unlocked.  Someone had locked it again but fortunately two other visitors had gone into the next village to get the key. The ironwork on the church door was ancient and impressive (see extra).  As one of the visitors pointed out, it would have been touched many times by St Gilbert himself.  The history of the priory and the monastic order can be found here.