This is part of the shrine of St. Winifred in Shrewsbury Abbey. Readers of the Cadfael novels will recall the story of how St. Winifred's remains were (supposedly) brought from North Wales to Shrewsbury in 1137 and became a major pilgrimage centre. A "Guild of Saint Winefride" was founded in 1487, and revived in 1987.
The shrine was demolished when the abbey was dissolved in 1540, and this fragment was discovered in a local garden in 1933.
The legend of St. Winifred tells that she was the daughter of a Welsh prince, and early in her life was vowed to a life of chastity. A local prince, by name Cradoc, was so infuriated when she repulsed his advances that he struck off her head with his sword. Fortunately her uncle Saint Beuno was nearby: he promptly placed her head back on her shoulders, and she lived. A fountain of pure water sprang up where this miracle occurred, and became the pilgrimage centre of Holywell. The wicked Prince Cradoc fell dead. Later, Winifred travelled on a pilgrimage to Rome, and became the prioress of a community of nuns at Gwytherin, where she was buried.
St. Winifred's bones were dispersed and mostly lost, though one of her finger-bones turned up in Rome, from where it was returned to Holywell in 1852.
Holywell, in north Wales, survived the Reformation, and people still come to bathe in the healing waters.
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