Ffynnon Drieg revealed
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Ffynnon Drieg revealed by Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Ffynnon Drieg revealed
Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 8 Mar 2017
Recent clearance of the gulley here has brought to light Ffynnon Drieg, the Treacle Well beside Nant-y-Blodau. The 'well', a shallow reservoir under the bank with a low containing wall beside the stream, was brought to my attention in the 1970 booklet 'Looking Around Newport Pembs'by Islwyn Jenkins, headmaster of the primary school at the time. He set his pupils the task of marking and mapping old footpaths and landmarks around the town and arranged for some of them to clear out this well. He explains that its name refers to the original meaning of treacle as a medicinal balm or healing unguent, the etymology being from the Greek and Latin words for antidote (to the bite of venomous animals.) The only other extant 'treacle well' appears to be the one featured by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland at Binsey near Oxford http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3529229 My previous attempts to locate the well failed because it was concealed by vegetation - this may well happen again so it is satisfying to find it still exists.
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Image Location
Latitude
52.011623
Longitude
-4.82941