Sancreed

Sancreed ("Cornish: Eglossankres") is a village and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, UK. The parish encompasses the settlements of Bejouans, Bosvennen, Botreah, Drift, Sancreed, Trenuggo, and Tregonnebris and is bounded by the parishes of St. Just to the west, Madron to the north-east and St Buryan and Paul in the south. The parish comprises 4608 acres of land. The village of Sancreed is situated approximately four miles (5.8 km) north-west of Penzance along a minor road that forks from the A30.

History

Like many Cornish communities Sancreed can trace its origins to its legendary foundation by St Credan or Sancredus a follower of St Petroc. The church itself is pre-dated by the holy well and baptistry of Sancreed, located a few hundred metres west of the church. The site was rediscovered by the vicar of Sancreed in the late nineteenth century. The wells and baptistry are of a similar age in both respects to those at Madron; like Madron there is a tradition of hanging cloughties (small strips of cloth) on the trees surrounding the well. The well is also known as St Uny's well. Next to the grade II listed baptistry ruin there is a modern celtic cross (erected in 1910) which is a copy of a medieval cross in Illogan churchyard.

George Grenfell, the missionary and explorer, was born here.

Local Government

For the purposes of local government Sancreed is a civil parish and elects its own parish council every 4 years. The principal local authorities in the area are Penwith District Council and the Cornwall County Council.

See also

* [http://sancreedopccornwall.tripod.com/index.html Sancreed Genealogy On-Line]
* Wish Tree
* Clootie well

External links

* [http://crocat.cornwall.gov.uk/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Overview.tcl&dsqSearch=((text)='sancreed') Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Sancreed]

References