Holywell, Treffynnon in Welsh, the town of the well, takes its name from a spring that rises at the foot of the hill below the parish church and has drawn pilgrims for at least nine hundred years.
The story behind it is set in the 7th century. Winefride, Gwenfrewi in Welsh, was the daughter of a local nobleman and the niece of St Beuno, who had built a church in the valley. She had decided to give her life to God. One day, while her parents were at mass, a young chieftain named Caradog came to the house and tried to force himself on her. She ran from him towards the church. He caught her on the slope and in a rage struck off her head with his sword. The head rolled down the hill, and where it came to rest a spring of water burst out of the ground.
Beuno came out of the church, took up the head, set it back on her body, and prayed. Winefride opened her eyes and stood up, alive, with only a thin white line around her neck to show what had happened. Beuno cursed Caradog, who fell dead, and in some tellings the earth opened and swallowed him. Winefride went on to become an abbess at Gwytherin, in the hills of what is now Conwy county, and her relics were later taken to Shrewsbury.
The well became one of the great shrines of Britain. It was visited by Richard II and Henry IV, and the Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, is credited with building the fine chapel over the spring around 1500. Unusually, the pilgrimage survived the Reformation, and Catholics kept coming through the centuries when their faith was illegal. Pilgrims noticed that the stones in the bath were streaked red, and believed the stains were Winefride's blood; they also gathered a fragrant moss from around the spring, called St Winefride's hair. The red colouring is now put down to a red alga or to iron in the water.
People still bathe in the outer pool, and the well is sometimes called the Lourdes of Wales.
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