Ffynnon Idloes, Llanidloes

Dedication: Saint Idloes

Location: Llanidloes

Status: lost (and destroyed)

Saint Idloes was a local saint of the 7th century, about whom very little is known. Apart from the fact that he is said to have founded the church of Llanidloes, which is dedicated to him, nothing more is recorded about his life. Indeed, he was a very minor saint even in medieval times, and his cult was isolated to Llanidloes, where a fair, or wake, was annually held in his memory on the first Saturday in September. There can be no doubt that Ffynnon Idloes would have been included in the celebrations.

As with the majority of holy wells in Britain, nothing is known of this site's early history. The earliest reference to the well that I have found dates from 1893, when a Mr D. Lloyd Morgan was quoted (in Bye-Gones) as having written, in the Llanidloes Echo "some time ago", that Ffynnon Idloes "was situate upon Lower Green (now Hafren-street), near the gate entering Mr Greenhow's field, close to an ash tree". This suggests that the well was actually located beside the road, although the use of past tense makes it clear that, by the time that this was written, the well had been destroyed. Unfortunately, no Ordnance Survey maps have ever marked a well or water source beside what is now Hafren Street (indicating that Ffynnon Idloes had already been destroyed), so it is impossible to be certain where exactly the well was located.

It is worth noting that the Historic Environment Record confidently places the site of Ffynnon Idloes at SN9566084680, at the edge of a field south of Hafren Street. A well was marked at this exact point on first edition Ordnance Survey maps, although subsequent editions show that this had been destroyed or filled in by 1900. The identification of this well with Ffynnon Idloes, however, is most probably a mistake, most likely caused by the fact that the area is labelled "Lower Green" on OS maps. It can be said with reasonable certainty that this was not Ffynnon Idloes, simply because it was not located on Hafren Street, as Mr D. Lloyd Morgan described.

Images:

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