Old folks say that the inhabitants of Sancreed were called “Sancras
Pigs” because, formerly, pork from that inland parish was preferred to
what was raised elsewhere in this neighbourhood.
All the other parishes west of Hayle have some part of their boundaries
on the seaboard: consequently, from the abundance of fish and the want
of any but the home market for it, until recently, much good fish was
cast on manure heaps, in places near fishing-coves; and the great,
long-sided, razor-backed swine, then foraging at their pleasure in
lanes and hamlets, ate so much fishery offal that it communicated a bad
flavour and worse smell to their meat. Much pork was then sold to the
“jousters” (retailers from the eastward) as “Sancras Pigs” that never
saw Sancras parish; and the natives of that favoured place might be
heard all over the Market-house calling out, “Come ’e here, my dears,
look at this, ah es a Sancras pig, born and reared; see the fat ov en
es as white as a crud (curd); no fear ov en beean trainey, like Paul
and Sennen-cove trade, that have lived upon fish all their time.”
At length these inlanders’ brag procured them the nickname of “Sancras
Pigs,” which they still retain.
We must pass over Buryan, for there seems to be no satisfactory account
as to how the swinish nickname bestowed on the natives of that
important parish originated.