Crowan

Crowan is a rural parish between Helston and Camborne, largely agricultural with scattered farmsteads and small hamlets. Praze-an-Beeble, close to the parish church, is the largest of its settlements, alongside Nancegollan and Leedstown. The medieval church is dedicated to St Crewenna, one of the many Celtic saints commemorated across Cornwall.

The Clowance estate, on the parish’s eastern side, was the seat of the St Aubyn family from 1671 until the baronetcy’s direct line ended in 1839. Clowance House, rebuilt after fires in 1837 and 1843, now sits at the centre of a holiday park set across the estate’s 97 acres of parkland. Crowan Beacon, a granite hill rising to 850 feet, carries two Bronze Age cairns and views across the parish; the area was a mining district through the 19th century, with the last of its mines closed by 1880.

The parish lies on the western side of the Carnmenellis granite upland. Helston is about 5 miles south, with Camborne about 4 miles north. The Lizard is accessible to the south, and the Mount’s Bay coast at Praa Sands and Porthleven is within 6 miles. Holiday accommodation here is typically in converted farm buildings and rural cottages.