England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pancrasweek St Pancras

The Parish

The parish of Pancrasweek lies in the extreme northwest of Devon indeed it forms part of the border with neighbouring Cornwall. Pancrasweek is located about 3 miles northwest of the small market town of Holsworthy. There is not much to modern day Pancrasweek, little more than a hamlet high on a hill, the parish has a scatter of farms and cottages with no defined centre at all. Pancrasweek is sited just north of the A3072 road which connects Holsworthy with the Cornish village of Stratton & the resort of Bude. Pancrasweek would have largely had pastoral farming as the basis of its economy during the time of this transcript and little has changed today. A small brook, imaginatively name Small Brook, drains southwards to join the River Tamar which flows southwards to reach the English Channel through Plymouth and forms the Cornish border for much of its route. Pancrasweek is sited at around 150 metres above the sea in a rolling countryside it stands 50 metres above nearby Small Brook. By the standards of this part of Devon Pancrasweek was of a typical size, it covered around 3,500 acres and supported (in those times) a population of about 550 parishioners. There is no mention of Pancrasweek in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Pancras' church stands in splendour on top of the main hill of the parish and on the eastern side of the main lane. The church has a core which is rather old and probably dates from the Norman period of the 11th or early 12th centuries, this Norman church was substantially added to, probably in the late 14th or early 15th centuries, to create the present church which has Norman and Perpendicular features dependent upon whether you view the northern or southern faces. The church was substantially restored in late Victorian times (1894 into the 20th century) but this doesn't unduly mask its heritage. A wide parking bay sits opposite the church, which stands behind head-high hedges, and a curious entrance way (almost like a gate within a small house) grants access. Once inside the churchyard there are few restrictions to photography.