St Tewdric’s Church and Well, Mathern

The Celtic Way passes through Mathern, taking pilgrims to the church and holy well of St Tewdric

Highlights

• St Tewdric’s shrine and holy well

The relics of St Tewdric were seen here in the 17th century, and again in the 19th century. So we know he is buried in this church. But for some reason, no one took the trouble to mark the site of his coffin or to fully document the saint’s relics.

St Tewdric was a king who abdicated to live out his final years as a hermit at Tintern, 5 miles to the north. When Saxons invaded, he came out of retirement to lead his people into battle. Though victorious, the aging warrior was wounded in the head by a lance and died in Mathern a few days later around the year 600.

Mathern’s church is still on the site of the original shrine, built by his son. The church has gone through several incarnations over the centuries, and the present structure is mostly 13th century. It sits at the southern edge of Mathern – a peaceful village at the end of the road.

His body was rediscovered surprisingly soon after the Reformation, during the tenure of Francis Godwin, Bishop of Llandaff 1601–1617. He noted that the skull had a serious fracture. A plaque was placed on the north wall of the chancel to mark the place where he was reinterred.

The relics were uncovered for a second time in 1881 and again reburied without a proper record, much to the frustration of today’s pilgrims. No one even took a photograph or marked the site of this saint’s grave. Another plaque was placed on the wall, its text implying that the bones lie at the foot of the wall: “A stone coffin was found while the chancel was under repair in the year 1881 beneath this tablet, where it was replaced at the completion of the works together with the bones which it contained.”

In 2005, a plan was drawn up to excavate the chancel for a third time, sponsored by a film company and managed by the National Museum of Wales. The church guide says the costs eventually proved prohibitive. It presumably involved more than lifting a few floor tiles. There is at least a recent statue of the saint – a wooden carving behind the altar on the left.The saint also has a holy well 400m from the church. Like his relics, this was also inaccessible when I visited, but only guarded by a locked gate rather than a stone floor. I stepped over the picket fence and found a chamber full of water at the bottom of a short flight of steps. This is where the saint came to bathe his head wound after being struck down. He is remembered on 1 April.

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St Tewdric’s Church, Mathern, Chepstow NP16 6JA

W3W: slant.pebbles.tower

GPS: 51.6146N 2.6902W church

W3W: sulky.triads.specifies

GPS: 51.6173N 2.6906W well

Mathern is spread over either side of the M48, and the well and church are on the southern side, nearest the sea. As you pass under the motorway, the well is 100m ahead on your right, next to a farm gate. Keep going another 400m for the church, which is left open in the day.