Marcross (Mark-Cross, or Mary-Cross) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849) MARCROSS (MARK-CROSS, or MARYCROSS), a parish, in the union of Bridgend and Cowbridge, hundred of Ogmore, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 6 miles (S. W. by W.) from Cowbridge; containing 96 inhabitants. The name is said to be a corruption of Mêr Croes, "the cross on the sea-shore," the parish being situated on the coast of the Bristol Channel: on the other sides it is surrounded by the parishes of Monknash, LantwitMajor, and St. Donatt's. It contains by admeasurement 873 acres, of which 642 are arable, and 231 pasture and meadow. The surface presents a prevailing flatness, but with delightful views of the Channel, which is on the south; there is very little wood: the soil is of a clayey quality, producing chiefly wheat. On Nash point, here, are two very important lighthouses, erected by the Trinity House soon after the loss in 1831 of the Frolic steamer on the Nash sands, a dangerous ridge of some miles, off this coast. Marcross was formerly a place of considerable importance, distinguished by a castle, now demolished, and by a monastery, said to have been subordinate to that of Lantwit-Major, and probably destroyed about the same time in the ravages of the Danes and Saxons in this maritime district.
The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £9. 10. 10., and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Llandaf. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £151. 7., which with the value of the glebe-land makes a gross income of £216. 7.: a very good parsonage-house was built some years since with money borrowed from Queen Anne's Bounty, under Gilbert's act. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is of a plain style of architecture, and was probably erected at a very early period; it measures, exclusively of the chancel, thirty-seven feet in length, by about sixteen in breadth, and contains nine inclosed seats, of which four or five may be considered free. A bequest of £5 for the benefit of the poor by an unknown donor is lost, no payment in regard of it having been made since 1788, when it was in the hands of the Rev. Edward Carn, at interest. Near the village are the remains of a cromlech, which tradition reports to have been an old church; it is not improbable that it was devoted to some superstitious purpose by the Druids. Here is a mineral spring, the water of which is stated to have been successfully applied, in a great variety of instances, to the cure of the king's evil.
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