Sancreed Holy Well, Cornwall, UK

LOCATION: SW418 293

Sancreed well, Sancreed near Penzance, Cornwall

The path to the holy well is opposite Sancreed church running alongside houses. It continues a way and then there is a fork in the path. The stone stile goes ahead into a field but the path to the well is small and on the right before the stone stile. It skirts an old concrete building, over some muddy puddles and then into a wooded grove following a stream. There are ruins of what looks like a baptistry but it’s very overgrown. Then the path turns a corner, and the well is suddenly in front of you. 

It is another beautifully crafted stone-clad well which you access down granite steps and feels ancient. Moss and luminescent moss clothe the inside of the well making it glisten and sparkle. Again, the pagans have filled a cloutie tree with rags by the well but don’t be put off. 

As I sit waiting for the Lord to speak I feel an immense sadness that desperate people who need healing are hoping a bit of rag on a tree will bring it, when right in front of them is evidence of what used to be a living faith in Jesus where people flocked to be helped and prayed for. I long for that power of healing and miracles to be fully restored to Christians!

As we are lingering there, a couple arrived who I assume are pagans from their appearance. We get chatting and I mention I am here for the Christian heritage. Immediately the lady shares she was a Christian but needs help. Without divulging confidences, God shows up in tenderness and we are able to pray together. I sense a releasing of the deposit still present at this well by this divine appointment. She desperately needed to know God’s loving compassion and he met with her, right there at the holy well, just as he’s met with many down the centuries in this place!