When I was a lad living in Penzance we'd often have weekend family days when Dad would drive us out to some remote part of Penwith for a good walk. One such place was Drift Reservoir and Dam and he would tell us about the sunken village under the water (which I wrote about here). He was always full of interesting stories and old folklore.
Other popular spots included Marazion beach with its views out to St Michaels Mount, or a walk across the moors near Madron to see Lanyon Quoit (here) and the Mên-an-Tol (here), or to visit the Merry Maidens stone circle (here) or the dramatic cliffs and old mine workings at Botallack.
Occasionally we would take the A30 road out to Sennen or Lands End (before it became so commercialised) and we'd pass through a small hamlet called Crows-An-Wra. Dad would always delight in telling us that the name meant 'The Witch's Cross'. He also liked to point out (probably because of his local knowledge - he was a police officer in the area), that Crows-An-Wra had only 13 houses.
When questioned further, he told us that the village got its name because a witch was buried at the crossroads.
Crows-An-Wra is an old settlement sitting in the parish of St Buryan. The oldest house still standing is the 17th century Grade II listed Haydon Cottage built by blacksmith William Haydon. He was born in the village in 1625 but died in London in 1666 in the Great Fire. The hamlet developed with the local mines of West Wheal Rissick, Wheal Lovell, and West Wheal Margaret, which in the mid-19th century produced high grade tin.
Photo from 1906
And the name of the village does indeed translate as 'witch's cross' or 'witch's crossing' although some scholars suggest it's a corruption of 'white cross' (why they think this I don't know - the Cornish for white is gwynn). There is evidence that the site was important in Neolithic times and it's not far from Carn Euny - an early Iron Age village site - and Boscawen-Un Stone Circle. There are also barrows at nearby Brane and Creeg Tol, a Holy Well, and a standing stone at Pridden. It's also not too far from the Holy Wells at Madron and Sancreed and their associated 'witch trees' (I wrote about them here).
Crows-An-Wra also boasts an old Wayside Cross - perhaps even the one in the village's name. These types of crosses were erected during the mediaeval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries CE. In addition to reinforcing the Christian faith amongst those who passed by, these crosses also acted as waymarkers, especially in wilder rural areas. Many were placed along regularly used routes linking small settlements or on routes that led back to a religious site. This particular cross marks one of several routes radiating out from the church at St Buryan village - once the site of a major Celtic monastery traditionally thought to have been founded by Athelstan in the early 10th century.
For these reasons Wayside Crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval religious customs, mediaeval travel and settlement patterns.
Over 350 Wayside Crosses are known nationally but they are mostly found in Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type of stone cross. Outside Cornwall almost all Wayside Crosses take the form of a `Latin' cross, in which the cross-head itself is within the projecting arms of an unenclosed cross. In Cornwall the commonest type includes a round, or `wheel', head with the spaces between the cross arms sometimes pierced.
However, the oddest thing to note about the village is that there doesn't seem to be a witch! I can find no historical explanation of the name despite looking through all of my books on Cornish history and folklore (and, believe me, I have a lot of them).
But at least what Dad told us about witches being buried at crossroads is true.
Murderers, suicidees and witches were often buried at a crossroads. Historians and archaeologists have long speculated on the reasons why. Perhaps it was the nearest resting place the deceased would get to any sort of religious symbol? Or maybe it was simply that no one wanted to pay for their burials and the land belonged to no one. Or it may have been because executions were commonly staged at crossroads. For example, the old 'Tyburn Tree' gallows in London stood at the crossroads of Edgware Road and Oxford Street (where Marble Arch stands now) and this sort of placement was quite commonplace. Whatever the reason, crossroads burials were abolished by an act of parliament in 1823. Few objected although, rather insenstively, some did suggest that the 'disgrace' of a crossroads burial might be a deterrent to suicide. I'm pleased to be able to say that we take a more enlightened and supportive view of mental health these days.
There are a number of tales of ghosts that rose from crossroads burials to seek revenge on the living. These stories were often quite lurid and terrifying and so, in many cases, stakes were driven through the corpses to keep the dead in their place. In 1760, murderer and suicidee David Stirn was dissected before being buried with a stake through his torso at a crossroads near the Black Mary’s Hole area of Clerkenwell, London. Meanwhile there are also stories about the trees that are often found growing at a crossroads. Some people claimed that they grew from the stakes driven into the bodies and that the resulting wood - often Ash - was said to have magical properties or, in some stories, was cursed.
But there are no such stories - that I can find - from Crows-An-Wra. Therefore, we'll probably never know the truth. Burial records are almost non-existent for crossroads because they didn’t take place on church land. Perhaps I should create a story about the witch myself?
However the St Buryan area, in which Crows-An-Wra can be found, does have a modern day witch.
Officially.
Meanwhile, the name of this tiny hamlet of 13 houses has spawned the name of a beer brewed by the Penzance Brewing Company, and a progressive post-hardcore punk band.
They are quite loud enough to wake the dead ...
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