The village's name probably derives from the Gaelic Loch eanach meaning 'loch of the birds', though local tradition attributes it to St Winnoc.
(c. 640-c. 716/717) was an abbot or prior of Wormhout who came from Wales.
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He was originally buried at Wormhout, but his relics were translated to Bergues-Saint-Winnoc in 899.
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Winnoc came to Flanders, to the Monastery of Saint-Omer, then ruled by St. Bertin, with three companions, and was soon afterwards sent to found at Wormhout, a dependent cell or priory (not an abbey, as it is generally called).
Winnoc |
Drogo, a monk at the former St. Winnoc abbey in Bergues, wrote Godelina's biography, the Vita Godeliph, about ten years after her death.
The parish saint disguised under the name 'Tewennocus' is almost certainly St Winwalo (pet-form: Winnoc), also commemorated at Gunwalloe and Landewednack, as well as Landevennec, Brittany: the place-name being derived from Old Cornish "te-Winnoc" (thy St Winnoc Winwalo), now represented as Late Cornish Te Wydnek.