Medieval wayside cross 300m NW of Trevorry Farm

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

24259

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Langdon, A G, Cornish Archaeology in Cornish Crosses: Recent News, Vol. 31, (1992), 154-165

Other
Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SX 05/15; St Austell and Fowey Source Date: 1980 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 5039,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 5039.1,

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