Maiden Wells is a small village located south of
Pembroke in
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
,
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
. The earliest reference to Maiden Wells is 'Mayden Welle' in 1336. The population is currently around 300.
History
The village gets its name from a well in the centre of the village which is fed by an underground spring. It is said that the water from the well is associated with fertility. In the past, the village had a public house, post office and a petrol station - but all have long since closed. The village has a chapel - Gilead
Calvinistic
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
Chapel - which was completed in 1876.
Name
For thirty years until 2017, road signs approaching to the village displayed '
MAIDENWELLS' leading to some confusion over the spelling. However, all current and historical maps - including
Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
- record the village name as 'Maiden Wells' rather than 'Maidenwells'.
To coincide with the opening of a new road bypass in 2017, Pembrokeshire Council sought to resolve any confusion by confirming that the correct spelling is indeed ''Maiden Wells'' and updated the road signs accordingly.
Bypass
Maiden Wells has suffered with very heavy traffic since the 1960s when the Texaco (now
Valero) oil refinery and
Pembroke Power Station
Pembroke Power Station is a 2,200 MWe natural gas-fired power station near Pembroke in Wales. The power station was officially opened in September 2012 and is the second largest gas-fired power station in Europe. It is also the largest po ...
opened. Even though the road through Maiden Wells is a
C-road designed for light traffic, by 2015 around six thousand vehicles a day were passing through the village including many vans, lorries and oil tankers.
Following numerous complaints and traffic accidents,
Pembrokeshire County Council
Pembrokeshire County Council () is the local authority for the county of Pembrokeshire, one of the principal areas of Wales.
History
There have been two bodies called Pembrokeshire County Council. The first existed from 1889 until 1974, and th ...
began a consultation with residents in the summer of 2010 about building a new road bypass. The council proposed three different routes.
The eventual chosen route generated controversy as it cuts through the centre of the village which and then passes to the north of the village.
[ County Council defends Maidenwells bypass route, near Pembroke]
The construction of the new road required the demolition of two cottages to make way for a new roundabout.
Work on the new road and associated drainage works began in January 2017 and the new road opened to traffic on Monday, 12 June 2017.
References
External links
Historical information and sources on GENUKI
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Villages in Pembrokeshire