Ffynnon Shan Shillin, Letterston

Dedication: Saint Silin

Location: Letterston

Status: lost (probably destroyed)

The patron saint of both Letterston's new and original church is St Giles. Silin appears to have effectively been the Welsh equivalent of St Giles, a 7th century French hermit; on the rare occasion that the dedication of a church (that is, one originally dedicated to Silin) was altered, it was often changed to St Giles. For example, although Wrexham's parish church is dedicated to St Giles, it was once under the patronage of St Silin. The very same thing probably happened here: in 1130, Letterston's church was gifted to the Order of St John, also known as the Hospitallers, who provided care and treatment for pilgrims to the Holy Land, and who owned large amounts of land across Britain. It was probably the Hospitallers who changed the church's patronage of St Silin to that of a less obscure saint. The name "Ffynnon Shan Shillin" is certainly a corruption of "Ffynnon Sant Silin", or "St Silin's Well", and its dedication to Silin almost definitely predates 1130. In fact, John Thomas Evans, writing in 1905 in The Church Plate of Pembrokeshire, pointed out that "si is pronounced shi" in the dialect of North Pembrokeshire, which would explain why the well's name has changed over time. Practically nothing is known of St Silin (who is not to be confused with either St Sulien or St Tysilio) himself, although his name appears all across Wales, usually with a connection with St Giles.

Ffynnon "Shan Shillin" itself seems to have been, at one time, quite famous in the locality, although I have not been able to find any historical references to its existence. In Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales (1911), Jonathan Ceredig Davies related that the well's water was "once so valuable" that it was sold for a "shilling a bottle"; it is not clear whether this was just a rumour that arose from a misinterpretation of "Shillin" as a contracted version of "Shilling". According to a piece in the South Wales Daily News from the October of 1898, another theory for the origin of its name was that "an old woman was drowned there whose name was Shan (Jane), and in whose pocket at that time was found one shilling".

Unfortunately, the exact location of Ffynnon Shan Shillin is unclear, but there are several potential sites around Letterston that may have been the well:

A spring was marked at SM9276229436 on the 1888 and 1908 Ordnance Survey maps of Letterston, roughly 200 metres from Hen Eglwys farmhouse. Hen Eglwys, meaning "old church" is thought to be the site of Letterston's medieval church (the current one having been constructed in the 19th century). Assuming that the holy well dates from the medieval period, which it almost certainly does, it is more likely that it was located in the vicinity of the original church rather than the newer one. This spring seems to have survived as a pond.
A spring at SM9338129637 was marked on all Ordnance Survey maps excepting today's, located around 400 metres from the approximate site of the original parish church. It is not clear whether it exists today.

Images:

Old OS maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland