Wayside cross in St Just Vicarage garden

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.

The medieval wayside cross survives well in St Just Vicarage garden as a good example of a wayside cross. The removal and re-erection of the cross, first to a garden wall, then later to the garden in the 19th century, demonstrates well the changing attitudes to religion and their impact on the local landscape since the medieval period.

Details

The monument includes a medieval wayside cross situated to the south east of the vicarage at St Just. The wayside cross, which is Listed Grade II, is 0.62m high, survives as an upright granite shaft with a round, `wheel' head which measures 0.59m wide and 0.17m thick. The principal faces are orientated north west-south east, and both are decorated with a relief equal limbed cross with an incised cross at the centre. The upper 0.14m of the shaft is visible above ground. The cross has a distinct lean to the north west. The original site of this cross is not known, though it is believed to have come from Sancreed parish. In the mid-19th century the antiquarian Blight illustrated the cross built into a garden wall at St Just Vicarage. By 1896 when the historian Langdon recorded it, the cross had been removed from the wall and was in the vicarage garden. The garden gnome to the east of the cross, the fragment of holed stone to the south east and the stone bowl to the north west where they fall within the protective margin are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath is included.

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:

31854

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Langdon, A G, Stone Crosses of West Penwith, (1997)
Langdon, A G, Old Cornish Crosses, (1896)

Other
Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SW 33/43/part 53; Pathfinder 1364 Source Date: 1989 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Consulted December 1998, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN No. 29772,

End of official list entry

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