Pumsaint (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pumsaint is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales situated half way between Llanwrda and Lampeter on the A482 in the valley of the River Cothi. It forms part of the extensive estate of Dolaucothi which is owned by the National Trust. Its name means Five Saints derived from the Welsh Pum(p) meaning Five and Saint meaning Saint. The name is derived from the stone block at the nearby gold mines, opposite Ogofau Lodge, which has four sides, each of which has hollows probably caused by pestle impacts. It was used as an anvil for crushing gold ore in the Roman period. Excavations in the 1990s of the area adjacent to the stone showed that the stone was originally horizontal and used as an anvil for a water powered crushing mill. There are many parallels from Spanish mines of the Roman period with similar stone anvils. It is also sometimes known as the Pumpsaint.