The path to Madron Well & Baptistry is a particularly beautiful one, especially in spring when the white may blossom forms a canopy over the path. At the end of the path it divides, the left hand fork going to the well and the right to the Baptistry. The trees hereabouts are festooned with clouties, pieces of brightly coloured cloth. This tradition is known about from many other places in Britain and elsewhere, and originally was a way of obtaining healing, by taking a cloth from the part of the body that was injured or hurt and letting it rot on the tree. As it rotted, so the hurt would disappear. Nowadays, many people probably leave a piece of cloth for good luck, though sometimes one sees all sorts of monstrosities, such as plastic bags, bus tickets and cardboard cartons!
The well itself (SW4455 3275) lies deep within the thicket of trees in very boggy ground, into which you can easily go up to your waist! It is sometimes reachable after a prolonged period of drought, and there are plans afoot to drain the land here to make it more accessible. It originally had a stone surround, and was certainly well-visited in the past. There are many accounts of maidens visiting the place, usually on the first three Thursdays in May, to throw straw crosses and pins into the water, the rising bubbles marking the number of years before matrimony. This ceremony continued certainly up until the early years of the 20th century. The well and its location still has a most primal, elemental feel to it.
Both the Baptistry and the Well have many stories and legends of healing associated with them In 1640 John Trelille came here to cure a badly bruised or broken backbone. On the first 3 Thursdays in May he bathed in the waters and slept on St.Madern's Bed which was a grassy hillock next to the well. After the third visit he was cured. In the 18th/19th centuries there were more accounts of it being visited for cures. In the 19thC an old woman An'Kitty who seems to have been some sort of well-guardian, advised the people how to undertake the rites: children were to be plunged naked into the water 3 times against the sun and then passed round 9 times from east to west before sleeping. It was clearly a place of much ancient lore and mystery that still has a peaceful atmosphere today Madron is a curious saint:"he" may originally have been a "she", since the word Madron is cognate with Modron, the mother-goddess of the Welsh Triads. Whether dedicated to female goddess or male saint the well remains a powerful prescient place.