Dear list,
I have received this query from someone who found my name on another list.
If any of you can help this person, please reply both on and off list to the
person directly!
Thanks in advance,
Ingegerd H.
----- Original Message -----
From: liz <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 2:42 PM
Subject: Holy Wells and springs
Dear Dr. Holand,
I found the site for medieval-religion archives on the net and hope that you
can still be reached at this e-mail address.
I live in Manorbier birthplace of Gerald of Wales or geraldus cambrensis and
as a community scheme we have been looking at geralds description of
Manorbier. The industrial revolution passed us by and the landcape is still
reasonably intact with a lot of what he describes still visible today.
We have had a lot of help from Brother Gildas, a monk on Caldey Island, who
has a great interest in early religions. He believes that Manorbier Church
was originally an anchorage with a hermitage outside the circular church
wall. He believes that the Mill was originally a chapel of anticipation
built on holy wells and that the site of the fishponds might of been the
scene of death of Pyr (mentioned by gerald) who "became intoxicated and feel
down a well" - Gildas thinks that this could be the description of a ritual
slaying.
I am no academic and would really like to know why such a large Norman
castle was built at Manorbier really serving not much of a strategic
purpose - it was never attacked by the welsh and though the vikings could
have pulled up here there are plenty of other spots they could have landed
around the bay. We also have neolithic, mesolithic, bronze age sites here
encompassing hearths, flint working floors, round barrows, fortified
enclosures, 2 iron age forts, cromlech and other finds all in a couple of
square miles. We have the perfect medieval manor still with its three big
fields and now according to Gildas underlying this might be this possibly
romano-british religious settlement. I realise that Manorbier is not that
important in the scheme of things but please could you point me towards
someone, if not yourself, who could assist us in understanding what we might
have here.
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