St.Ann’s, or The Virtuous Well

All the T’s today … Tintern, Tewdric and Trellech …
I left the hostel after a good chat with the managers, went to the excellent community owned village shop and then set off for Tintern Abbey, one of the main reasons for coming here (extra). I have been meaning to visit for so many years but never quite got this far, until today. A long awaited pilgrimage. It was teeming with rain so I sat in the car with my coffee reading Wordsworth’s, ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.’ 


Then I set off on a holy well odyssey. I headed down the valley to Mathern and St.Tewdric’s Well (extra). A king who abdicated to become a hermit but was called to defend his people against the Saxons and was mortally wounded. He was laid down, water gushed up, there were white stags, etc. More here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewdrig

I then went to Trellech and found this very lovely well (blip) … one of the nicest I’ve come across and a lovely feel to it, especially with Harold’s standing stones nearby (extra) …and clouties!

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8277
https://shawsseasonalliving.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/the-virtuous-well/

On my way back the rain had eased and I walked a bit of the Wye Valley Way near Whitestone where Wordsworth is supposed to have composed Tintern Abbey … https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-a-few-miles-above-tintern-abbey-on-revisiting-the-banks-of-the-wye-during-a-tour-july-13-1798

Then went to find my Airbnb and dinner in a Gurkha pub that was full of Gurkhas from Gloucester.