Madron Well, Near Penzance, Cornwall
Other Names: Boswarthen Chapel
SW 446328
The path to the well is lned with blackthorn and hawthorn bushes. There is also a rowan tree by the well
This is another healing well, with a cloutie bush nearby. A cloutie is a piece of rag torn from your clothes soak in water and hung on the bush. As they rag decays so does the person's illness.
The well has a baptism, the child being dipped three times into the water whilst facing the sun and taken clockwise around the well nine times
It is also used for divination and people also drop pins into the well
The name Madron causes such dispute as to its meaning Madron could simple be Celtic for Mother (latin Maternus) and connecting to the Irish Medrhan or Maternus. It may also be priest from Brittany - Paternus, who died on June 20th.
Madron in the Celtic meaning can be Earth Mother or Mother of the Virgin (St Anne being the Christian version of the Mother of the Virgin)
This is a medieval chapel nearby the water which feeds into the stone altar here is from the same source as the well
The hillock nearby is names St. Maderne's Bed