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Ffynnon Deiniol, Llanfor

Dedication: Saint Deiniol Location: Llanfor Coordinates: 52.91767, -3.5794 Grid reference: SH939367 Heritage designation: none

St Deiniol, anglicised as "Daniel", was a disciple of St Cadoc of Llancarfan. He was a saint of the late 6th and early 7th centuries, and he appears to have travelled across Wales during his lifetime and founded several churches and monastic institutions. Deiniol was clearly an important figure, as Dyfrig, who has his own holy well in Glamorgan, is said to have consecrated Deiniol as the first Bishop of Bangor. He was buried, like so many saints of the period, on Bardsey Island.

The identity of the patron saint of Llanfor parish has been disputed since at least the 19th century. Browne Willis, a distinguished antiquarian of the 18th century, had no doubt that the church was under the patronage of St Deiniol. It is possible that the name Llanfor, instead of indicating an association with the 5th century St Mor, is a corruption of "Llan Fawr", or "Large Church". However, the place-name was recorded in 660 by the Welsh bard Llywarch Hen as "Llanfor", suggesting that the name is not a corruption at all, so it is more likely that the parish has a joint patronage of both St Mor and St Deiniol. In all probability, St Mor founded the church in the 5th century, but St Deiniol visited the parish in the 7th century and preached to the inhabitants, baptising them in the spring nearest to the church, Ffynnon Deiniol. Interestingly, the cult of St Deiniol seems to have had more importance in Llanfor than that of St Mor (perhaps St Deiniol's visit to the area was more fresh in the parish's collective memory), because a wake was held annually in the parish on St Deiniol's feast day, the 11th of September, but not on St Mor's. There is a possibility that Ffynnon Deiniol was once dedicated to both of these saints, although, as joint dedications are very rare, this is unlikely.

Nothing is recorded of the early history of Ffynnon Deiniol, and the earliest reference that I have come across to its history dates from the very late 17th century, when Edward Lhuyd, in 1699, mentioned "Ffynnon Dhanniel wrth glawdh y Vynwent", or "Ffynnon Dhanniel at the ditch of Wynwent". Unfortunately, I have not found any recorded traditions that were associated with the well, although there certainly would have been some: without a doubt, the well would have formed a major part of celebrations on St Deiniol's feast day. Ffynnon Deiniol was certainly also linked with other ecclesiastical sites in the vicinity, including a hill named Bryn-Pader (Hill of the Lord's Prayer), the point from which visitors to Llanfor are said to have viewed the church for the first time and recited the Lord's Prayer; this hill is linked to both the well and the church via a footpath that probably formed a ceremonial route into the village.

Ffynnon Deiniol, despite the fact that it survives in incredibly good condition, clearly went under the radar (as it continues to today), as the only detailed mention of its existence that I have come across is that which was compiled by the Royal Commission in 1913:

Today, Ffynnon Deiniol is one of few wells that retains what may be its original structure. It is probable that the stone structure that surrounds the spring is, in the most part, medieval (minus the concrete water-proofing, of course). It seems that this three-sided stone construction was not covered with a large slate slab, as it is today, when the Royal Commission visited the site in 1913; this would explain why they called it an "enclosure" and mentioned bathing. When I visited the well in the April of 2025, the well was dry, and it appeared that the spring's water was being pumped off elsewhere by a large brick and concrete structure that exists just a few metres south of the well. Inriguingly, around the pond next to this were scattered the remains of several large, and clearly old, slate slabs; it is possible that they may have once formed a bathing pool of some description around this pond.

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