Reasons for Designation
Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the
medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. In addition to
serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith
amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside
crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and
otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes
linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious
function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners
and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on
pilgrimages.
Over 350 wayside crosses are known nationally, concentrated in south west
England throughout Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type
of stone cross. A small group also occurs on the North York Moors. Relatively
few examples have been recorded elsewhere and these are generally confined to
remote moorland locations.
Outside Cornwall almost all wayside crosses take the form of a `Latin' cross,
in which the cross-head itself is shaped within the projecting arms of an
unenclosed cross. In Cornwall wayside crosses vary considerably in form and
decoration. The commonest type includes a round, or `wheel', head on the faces
of which various forms of cross or related designs were carved in relief or
incised, the spaces between the cross arms possibly pierced. The design was
sometimes supplemented with a relief figure of Christ and the shaft might bear
decorative panels and motifs. Less common forms in Cornwall include the
`Latin' cross and, much rarer, the simple slab with a low relief cross on both
faces. Rare examples of wheel-head and slab-form crosses also occur within the
North York Moors group. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed
base or show no evidence for a separate base at all.
Wayside crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval
religious customs and sculptural traditions and to our knowledge of medieval
routeways and settlement patterns. All wayside crosses which survive as earth-
fast monuments, except those which are extremely damaged and removed from
their original locations, are considered worthy of protection.
This medieval wayside cross has survived well and is a good example of a
wheel-head cross, complete with head, shaft and base. The presence of the
small hollows on the faces of the head shows well the medieval mason's
technique used to construct the design. Although it has been moved a short
distance, its original location at the junction of two ancient lanes is known
and demonstrates well the role of wayside crosses in marking routes to the
parish church. Although subsequently re-sited, it remains in an analogous
position on a church lane in the same parish. The place-name reference to the
cross on the mid-19th century tithe map, when its physical remains had been
buried from view, provides a good example of the survival of cross-locations
in local folk memory.
Details
The monument includes a medieval wayside cross situated in a recess in a
hedgebank at a minor road junction south of Lanlivery in south central
Cornwall.
The wayside cross survives with an upright granite shaft and a circular
'wheel' head set in a rough-hewn block. The cross head measures 0.36m high by
0.4m wide and 0.15m thick. On both of its flat principal faces is a low-relief
cross motif with flared arms which extend to the perimeter of the head,
slightly raised above the shallow-recessed background. A small circular
hollow at the centre of each face of the head is considered to derive from the
centre point used when the design of the head was originally marked out. The
cross shaft rises 0.68m from its emergence from the base slab to the base of
the head. It is of rectangular section with rounded corners, and tapers from
0.31m wide and 0.18m thick at the base to 0.28m wide and 0.12m thick near the
head. The shaft is undecorated. The cross shaft is cemented onto a thick,
roughly shaped sub-circular base slab, 0.32m thick, 0.63m wide and extending
0.69m to its outer edge from the edge of the shaft: its rear edge is embedded
in the hedgebank. The base slab is supported on further packing stones visible
in the side of the hedgebank.
The cross is located at the junction of two minor roads 1km south of Lanlivery
village. However, the cross, with its socketed base slab, was discovered in
1936, buried by the junction of two ancient lanes 1km to the WSW, adjacent to
a field named 'Cross Park' on a mid-19th century tithe map. At that location
the cross was situated beside a cross-roads on one of several main routes to
the parish church in Lanlivery parish. The cross was re-erected at its present
location in 1940, further along the road which crossed its original church
lane, but beside another of this parish's ancient church lanes.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
