Alderwicks Ltd

Higgon's Well

Higgons Well is just outside Haverfordwest in the heart of Pembrokeshire, on the bank overlooking the old riverside pathway to the village of Uzmaston known locally as “Fortune’s frolic” . It is referred to in the 1925 Inventory of Ancient  Monuments, which describes “a farm a short mile to the South East of Haverfordwest where formerly stood a well and well chapel of great repute and popularity in medieaval times.”
It has been suggested that this was one of the “holy wells” on the pilgrims’ route to St. David's, a theory disputed by some historians on the grounds that Fortune’s Frolic is not the main route to the Cathedral City. But the main roads in Pembrokeshire today follow largely the routes of the 19th century turnpikes, and in the era when St. David's was at the height of its importance most travelers went on horseback — or Shanks Pony. So pilgrims coming from the south would have crossed from Pembroke by the ancient ferry underneath where the Cleddau Bridge now spans the estuary and might well have included the churches at Boulston and Uzmaston on their itinery—especially as these as these were both concerned with the order of St. John of Jerusalem—and then stopped off to bathe their weary limbs in the soothing (and holy) water to ears attuned to the modern English, the term well probably means a hole in the ground filled with water. This is not so in Pembrokeshire, where the local dialect features many words and phrases that remind use of our language as it was in the time of Shakespeare or Milton. (Here you don't close the door and lock it, you lock the door and key it. There are dozens of examples, and many books have been written on the subject). Anyway, in this part of Britain the hole-in-the-ground well is called a winch, while the local word well means what is generally known as a spring, that is, fresh water spouting out of a bank and running into a man-made stone tank or bath. Perhaps fountain would be more appropriate, but in Pembrokeshire we call it a well.