Ian Taylor

Just picked up a copy of Alice Vernon's Ghosted for my weekend reading. Dark nights and autumn coming on quickly now.

Cover of Hellebore: The Mirror Issue, showing a woman with eyes closed and her reflections in two mirrors, both with open eyes

Ready for a new issue? Pre-orders for The Mirror Issue are now open worldwide! ✨🪞✨

Mirror magic, ritual masks, films that cast a spell, doppelgängers and fetches, changelings, evil portraits, spirit traps and much more.

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Call them corpse roads, coffin lanes, funeral walks. Call them procession paths, lych lines, wraith ways. Just as long as you remember they are the arterial routes of the dead. The long cicatrix of grief carved into the land. – Dr. Michael Benn, 1981

At the Silver Well, a petrifying well, in West Cheshire this morning

Gorgeous morning walking along the River Weaver in West Cheshire this morning in search of the Silver Well, a petrifying well near Kingsley.

Malbury parish council has a budget for padlocks for St. Edwold's holy well. They've decided people immersing themselves for reasons of healing or wild baptism is too dangerous to be permitted. Such is the strength of folklore they have to replace a lock every couple of days. #FolkloreThursday

Artwork of a woman in a brown robe with a veil and angel wings. A halo. She's flying. Dark, cloudy background.

Today is the feast day of Christina the Astonishing. During her funeral she levitated through the church. The priest ordered her to come down. She explained that she had been to heaven, purgatory, and hell. She continued to live many years and avoided people as she could smell their sins.

Fantastic programme. I love the work you're doing. Makes me long to get over on to Ynys Mon for a few evenings come the autumn. Diolch

The well was restored in the 2010s but has been allowed to deteriorate again, probably now fenced off from the coastal path.

Gorad is possibly derived from "gored" - a fish trap / weir. Prior to the construction of the 1830 Embankment which led to a shift in the sandbanks, there was a direct path over the sand from Holy island to the mainland at this point. It is suggested that the monastery used the area to catch fish.

Ffynnon Gorad
This well lies on the Anglesey Coastal Path to the north of Valley. Local belief is that it was once associated with a local small monastic settlement connected to the monastery at Holyhead. More recently it was been used as a local water supply.

Williams uses the name Ffynnon Sadwrn to support the premise that St Mary's church was initially dedicated to St Sadwrn (of Llansadwrn, 3 or 4 miles to the NE of Llanfair PG ) prior to its rededication to St Mary.

Thanks are due to a local correspondent who alerted me to both the book and the well

Up until the start of the 20th century the well was believed to have healing properties. The two alternative names of the well are recorded in John L Williams's book Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll: Hen Enwau a Lluniau'r Lle.

Ffynnon Sadwrn / Ddu (both have been used) is close to St Mary's Church Llanfair PG Anglesey. Once a copious spring feeding a duck pond, it was destroyed in the 1840s during the building of the new railway. now only a small stone chamber covered by a grill remains, though water still flows.

At the beautiful St Peulan's church Llanbeulan this afternoon with @friendlesschurches.bsky.social and @angleseyhistory.bsky.social

"of natural springs there were none...but wells had been sunk. Their waters were clear & cool enough, but one never knew to what purpose these wells were sometimes put. They were deep & had the merit of keeping their own secrets.

Rev T J Jones in John Ellis History of Abergele. 1948

Ffynnon Ddoged, Llanddoged Doged is a curious mixture of king and saint. The main reference, a late fifteenth century poem by Ieuan Llwyd Brydydd, names him as Doged Frenin, King Doged. This refers to an image of him at the …

Had a great evening on Thursday looking at the fantastic work @friendlesschurches.bsky.social have done restoring St Doged's church at Llanddoged. Fascinating C19 update to a medieval church.

Also took the chance to revisit the well Ffynnon Ddoged.

wellhopper.wales/2025/05/02/f...

Ffynnon Ddoged, Llanddoged Doged is a curious mixture of king and saint. The main reference, a late fifteenth century poem by Ieuan Llwyd Brydydd, names him as Doged Frenin, King Doged. This refers to an image of him at the …

A short blog post on Ffynnon Ddoged - Saint Doged's well, following on from my visit to Llanddoged yesterday. wellhopper.wales/2025/05/02/f...

Ieuen Llwyd Brydydd recounts the story of a rider thrown from his horse. His eye was damaged so severely that no surgeon could help him. But at the well God and the saint made him perfectly whole again

St Doged, or King Doged met an untimely end as recorded in the Mabinogion. Widowed Cilydd, father of Culhwch, was looking for a new wife seven years after his first wife died in childbirth. He was told he should slay Doged and take his wife which he duly did.

Ffynnon Ddoged, St Doged's well at Llanddoged, Conwy. Subject of a late 15th century ode claiming the well had healing powers but now covered by stone and locked tight shut

Looking forward to visiting Llanddoged tomorrow. A few years since I was last there to find the once curative well Ffynnon Ddoged, now lost under brick and concrete

What was the piece that you performed? Is available to hear/buy online?

Thanks for a wonderful set in Manchester last night. Absolutely spellbinding!

Absolutely magnificent last night. Edinburgh has a treat in store

Latest copy of @helleborezine.bsky.social journal arrived this morning. Always a joy to receive it. That's Saturday morning sorted

Very much looking forward to seeing & hearing Penelope Trappes tonight

A trip down to the Llandudno copper mines gave an unexpected treat that had this folklorist doing a little dance of excitement

Seven Bronze swords with leaf shaped blades on display in the National Museum of Ireland

A selection of Late Bronze Age swords on display in the National Museum of Ireland.

The impressive sword in the centre was found in the River Inny, Westmeath. It dates to c.900-700 BC.

The length and leaf shaped blade hint that it was possibly designed to be used by a warrior mounted on horseback.

Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw is my all time favourite horror opera. Seen a few excellent productions if it. Opera North did a fantastically claustrophobic version a few years ago