Croes-goch (also spelled Croesgoch) is a village in North

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

West Wales West Wales () is a region of Wales. It has various definitions, either covering Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheubarth'', and an alternative definition is to include Swa ...

. It is situated on the A487 between

Fishguard Fishguard (, meaning "Mouth of the River Gwaun") is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a population of 3,400 (rounded to the nearest 100) as of the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. Modern Fishguard consists of two parts, Lowe ...

and

St David's St Davids or St David's (, , "Saint David, David's Welsh toponymy, house”) is a St David's Cathedral, cathedral City status in the United Kingdom, city in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It lies on the River Alun, Pembrokeshire, River Alun and is ...

. It lies some five miles northeast of St Davids on the junction of the A487 St Davids to Fishguard road with the B4330

Llanrhian Llanrhian is a small village, Community (Wales), community and parish in Pembrokeshire in west Wales, near the coast, south of Porthgain village. The community of Llanrhian includes the settlements of Llanhowell (), Croesgoch, Portheiddy, Porthga ...

Haverfordwest Haverfordwest ( , ; ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a Community (Wales), community consisting of 12,042 people, making it the secon ...

. The village, which has a population of about 400, lies within

Community Council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. ...

and lies two miles south of the

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Pembrokeshire Coast National Park () is a National Parks of England and Wales, national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales. It was established as a National Park in 1952. It is one of the three National parks of Wales, the others ...

History

There are a number of ancient burial mounds in the general vicinity and a previous site of a windmill. An old private tollgate still stands and is now used as a holiday cottage. Croesgoch lies on one of the

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

routes to St David's cathedral. Nearby, at Mesur-y-Dorth, a specially carved stone, indicates a spot where people shared their bread before the last stage of their journey. The name of the village is thought to originate from a battle which occurred near the village and resulted in a slaughter and a mythical river of blood that formed a cross - Croes-Goch. The oldest archaeological remains that have been found in the village is a cist burial tomb carbon dated c 500 AD unearthed during building work. The Baptist Chapel, which is situated near the village centre, was built in 1858 and played a crucial role in village life. Nearby, churches include

and Llanhywel. On an 1842 Tithe Map shows only a small group of three or so cottages, with a building designated as a Chapel. Similarly, the 1841 census shows only a small group of three cottages. Over the years the village has grown with building mainly taking place on the Llanrhian, Abereiddi and Trefeigan roads.

The Modern Village

The village now has various amenities, including a bilingual primary school, a chapel, an art gallery (dedicated to the work of John Knapp Fisher), a garage, a large farm store, the Artramont Arms pub, and a beauty salon. The Croesgoch exchange was the first in North Pembrokeshire to have

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

enabled back in April 2004.

Culture

The Croesgoch Garden Show committee organises the annual show which takes place at the school. This has been running for 65 years. Other events include a Heritage Group that meets every month & is twinned with Charleville history society in Co Cork, Ireland, the Women’s Institute, carol singing, the nearby church fete in Llanrhian which takes place in August and Llanhywel Church Strawberry Fayre in late July and local women come together to recite poetry. Every year in the month of June a vintage tractor run is held in Croesgoch and it attracts much local interest. The leading painter John Knapp Fisher lived and worked here in Trevigan Gallery until his death in 2015. The gallery is still open selling prints of his work. A specialist bakery is due to open in 2019 in part of Farm Stores.

References

{{authority control Villages in Pembrokeshire