Crantock
Jane and I were in Truro in Mid-October 2017 and, having finished our business early, decided to follow up a news item we had heard on local radio recently and visit the village of Crantock, just to the south-west of Newquay. The news item concerned St. Carantoc's Holy Well and we were able to park close by. The well is right in the centre of the village, in a small enclosure alongside attractive Well Cottage. The well itself has a small wooden door; sad that there was no water. We then walked round to the church, standing in a large graveyard; an abundance of crosses but no old Cornish Crosses. St. Carantoc's is an odd looking church, seemingly added to randomly over the centuries. After such a lowly exterior, the rich interior is a great surprise. As you enter, you face a carved St. Christopher. To your left is a Norman font, heads at each corner. To your right, the rood screen immediately stands out, richly carved. with its rood intact and a curve of painted ceiling above. Sadly, there are no original bench ends, though a gilded one is displayed in the chancel. The minister's stall and choir stalls are attractive. Just a short distance away by a road past the church is Crantock Beach, a vast stretch of pristine sand between Pentire Points East and West, where the Gannel River joins the sea. From May to September a ferry crosses from the Fern Pit cafe on the Newquay side. At low neap tide you can walk along the shore of the river to a wooden footbridge to the Newquay side.
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St. Carantoc's HolyWell
Crantock Beach
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Crantock
While so many Cornish villages sadly have little or nothing left of the facilities that villages once had, Crantock retains many of the features that make a village - church, village stores and post office, tea garden and art and craft gallery, and two pubs, the Old Albion and the Cornishman. Oddly church (described and pictured on my Holy Sites page), and pubs are away from the circle that appears to be the village centre; fortunately a sign points down a tiny lane towards them. The circle in question is a small garden, enclosed by hedges. Equally oddly, for such a small village, there are two pubs, the Old Albion and the Cornishman. When I visited the village and church in November 2018, I enjoyed lunch at the Old Albion. From the village a lane leads out to West Pentire headland, another down to quiet, sandy Crantock Beach at the mouth of the Gannel estuary, a lovely spot with a handy large National Trust car park.
Creed
Jane and I visited Creed for an NGS open garden day way back in August 2006. Spotting that the garden opens in mid-June this year, 2016, we decided to make another visit. But first, I decided I would return to re-visit the church and to look around the nearby village of Grampound. I had a fine sunny day for it and was able to get some good photos. Oddly, while you might reasonably expect that tiny Creed, a mile south of Grampound, would be no more than an adjunct to it, it is Creed which is the original settlement, with the major church, while Grampound's church is no more then a Chapel of Ease. There is very little to Creed, just the handsome airy church, the big house, Creed House, and its lodge east of the church, Creed Farm, one of it's barns converted to a dwelling, and a small but handsome old barn with tallet steps abutting the churchyard. Creed House has a pleasant garden with fine specimen trees. I had always known that my father's cousin Bertie had, as Rev. A. E. Coulbeck, been rector of St. Just in Roseland. In 2006 it came as a surprise to me that he had previously been rector here and that Creed House had been his rectory. Notable figures connected with Creed were William Gregory, discoverer of titanium, and Parliamentarian John Hampden who represented Creed and Grampound in the time of Cromwell.
Crowan and Clowance
In mid-May 2017 I visited Crowan and Clowance. I had only been here previously when walking the Land's End Trail in 2009 and had not then lingered in either place. This time I was in search of Cornish Crosses. First I visited Crowan Church where I found a cross head on a plinth near the porch. Inside the church the rood stairs are still in place but, of course no rood loft. There is some colourful stained glass and an elaborate St. Aubyn memorial. Down the road towards Clowance is a former mill, still with its water-wheel in place. Then I parked in the car park near Clowance House and spent a couple of hours walking the estate, primarily in search of more Cornish Crosses. There are three stone crosses, one near the Golf View Apartments, one behind cabin number 17 and a third, sadly invisible, on an island in the lake. By the path, to the north-west of the lake, a sign explains the Cornish Crosses and has a few words about Cornish saints, too. I walked around the lake and took photos of its little boathouse. There is an entertaining feature in the grounds to the west of the house: a Greek temple, one side of it a chess board, the other draughts.