Ancient Stone crosses in Devon
Record of Devon
Crosses
Crosses carved from
stone are commonly used as memorials across Britain. However, in the remoter
areas of England,
ancient stone crosses with no clear memorial function are found not only in churchyards
but also beside the road, often at junctions. Many of these monuments show
evidence of deliberate damage in the distant past, and in some cases repair and
restoration during the Victorian period. In Cornwall, several hundred ancient stone crosses
have been identified, particularly on the high moors, and Andrew Langdon has
published a series of books containing a full gazetteer. Mr E.N. Masson
Phillips conducted a comprehensive survey of the stone crosses that survive in Devon; the survey was published in series of papers to
the Devon Association in 1937 and 1938, with supplements added up to 1987.
A number of
generalisations can be drawn from Masson Phillips’ records.
Firstly, the Devon crosses are quite different
in style from those erected in Cornwall.
West of the Tamar, the majority have circular features in the cross head, such
as variations on the wheel-head, and have a Celtic feel to the overall design.
In Devon the common design is the rectangular
cross head with chamfering on the shaft and shoulders on the socket stone. It
is not clear whether this illustrates a different cultural tradition or the
different period in which the stones were erected in the two counties.
In both counties the majority of the surviving
stones are in the upland areas – Cornwall,
having a higher proportion of these areas, has more crosses. However, it is not
clear whether this distribution reflects the survival of these monuments in
areas that have been least disturbed by later development or the original favouring
of these remote locations.
There are very few examples where it can be
clearly demonstrated that the cross is in its original location. On the
contrary, a large number are known to have been moved at least once, often
having been “rescued” in the Victorian period. Many had been adapted for use as
gateposts, bridges, lintels and troughs, so had obviously been removed some
time before from their earlier positions. Since the local churchyard was seen
as the safest and most appropriate place for a cross, several of these are
designated as churchyard crosses, although the limited records suggest they
were originally sited outside this consecrated ground. Since the stones are so
heavy, most relocation seems to have been within the parish, though there are notable
exceptions where stones have been transported from Cornwall
to Devon.
The majority of the stone crosses are made of
granite, a durable stone but difficult to engrave with detail. There is little
evidence of decorative engraving or legends on most stones. However, some have
simple crosses engraved on the face and quite a few have niches in the cross
head, suggesting that a small statue or carved material was originally inserted
there.
The deliberate damage generally involved
smashing off the arms of the cross head, though the whole head was sometimes
broken off intact. It is assumed that this was done after the Reformation, when
the smashing of icons was encouraged. Some would have been broken during the
period of the Civil War and Commonwealth. Some effort was made to preserve
crosses that survived a functional purpose such as boundary markers and
waymarkers; even when the head was smashed the stump was often retained. The
Victorians added back the missing sections to what they found, and it was
easier to add a complete new head, presumably by removing any residual material
from the top of the shaft. After 150 years or aging it is difficult to judge
whether sections match because of the skill of the Victorian stone mason or
because they are the genuine reunion of the original cross. When the renovated
cross has been adapted as a memorial (normally in a churchyard) it includes
some record of the change, but in many instances the only information is
anecdotal.
Some of the crosses seem always to have been at
the roadside. The obvious Christian iconography has led to the conclusion that
these wayside crosses were placed on pilgrimage routes, particularly between
monasteries and holy sites. In other cases it is suggested that they mark
church paths to guide parishioners or pallbearers to the mother church.
The sophistication of the crosses may indicate
their relative age and even their function (Masson Phillips adopted a simple A,
B, C, D designation for most of the crosses). The few examples of crosses with
ornamental engraving, such as Copplestone, are pre-Conquest and had some
memorial function. The more common crosses formed by simply shaping the end of
a piece of moorland stone are medieval and may generally have been intended as
prominent markers beside a roadside. The simple working may leave them
misshapen or asymmetric. These are classified as Type A by Masson Phillips. The
erect stones with well-defined rectangular cross heads may be 12th
to 15th century and again used at the roadside but with a subsidiary
religious function; the Maltese crosses which are more elaborate may be the
later ones. Masson Phillips classifies those that are tall and slender as Type
B and the more massive ones, thought to be later, as Type C. The more ornate
crosses, including those with Lantern heads, pillared shafts and canopied
niches may be 12th to 15th century and are Classified as
Type D by Masson Phillips. These have a stronger Christian symbolism and may
have been at shrines, rural preaching places or later absorbed into the
churchyard of a new church. The modern crosses are almost all memorials; after
World War I many villages adopted the style of the Ancient Stone Cross as the
pattern for the marker above Rolls of Honour.
Here we can also make some logical extension to
the classifications made by Masson Phillips.
In looking for patterns of distribution of the
crosses it may also be useful to describe the overall appearance in terms of
its profile. Although rather arbitrary it is independent of size and describes
the proportions of the cross head and shaft. The term “regular” describes the
commonest form, “broad” describes those where the face appears wider than it is
deep, “slender” those where the shaft is relatively thin and “natural” those
where the shape of the original boulder has influenced the shape. In the South
Hams there are a group of “spurred” crosses with some ornamentation to the
arms. The natural profiles are more primitive, generally having short arms, and
it is tempting to regard these as the oldest form. Crosses with a broad profile
look older than the regular profiles, whereas the slender profile appears to be
associated with the youngest of the crosses. Natural profile crosses are all
found around Dartmoor, as are the majority of
the “broad” profile crosses. The slender crosses are more common to the east of
Dartmoor; the spurred crosses in Erme Valley
area.
The stone crosses on Dartmoor
could have been carved relatively close to where they were erected but for
those located off the moor considerable effort would have been required to
transport them. It may be assumed that water transport would be to move them
wherever this was possible, design and materials may be related to the river
catchment in which they are found; sites along the coast, accessible to sea
transport, would potentially show a different distribution pattern. This
approach might also mean that the possibility of crosses being carved from
stone on Exmoor (Sandstone/Sarcen material) or the
church building stones of the coastal quarries of East
Devon, might be observed. Indeed looking at the similarities and
differences in the stone used for crosses and that used in the associated
parish churches might be interesting in understanding the origin of the
crosses.
Dartmoor and Devon
Crosses
The largest number of
Devon crosses is in and around Dartmoor and
these monuments have attracted particular interest from local historians and
walkers. Being close to plentiful supplies of granite and located so high up in
the catchments that they may be no practical barrier between the various river
systems, these crosses are easily considered as a single group. Harry Starkey
updated and revised Masson Phillips’ material for this area in Dartmoor Crosses and some ancient tracks –
revised edition 1989. More recently web sites at
http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/cross_moor.htm
and http://www.dartmoor-crosses.org.uk/
have added more
information on the Dartmoor Crosses.
Away from Dartmoor,
Masson Phillips reported a significant number of ancient crosses surviving in
the parishes of southern and western Devon.
These “lowland” crosses have received less attention in recent times and so are
considered in more detail here. These non-Dartmoor crosses have been
categorised as either Central-Devon (the main Exe catchment), East Devon (the
catchments around the Otter and Axe), North Devon (the Taw Torridge catchment) South Devon (the river valleys of the South Hams) and
Coastal (places where transport of stone by sea would have been easy).
Distribution of Wayside Crosses.
Published studies of
the stone crosses of Devon have generally not
distinguished between the various category of cross when analysing distribution
or style. This is, in part, because it is difficult to judge whether the stones
in churchyards were intended for consecrated ground or have been relocated
there. Furthermore, there is a general presumption that all the crosses have a
primarily religious function and so sub-division between churchyard and
crossroads is unimportant. A recurring theme in the description of the Dartmoor stone crosses is that they mark the main paths
between the monastic institutions, and pilgrimage sites around the moorside.
However, a Devon-wide
perspective suggests that the stone cross was used as a marker for several
quite different purposes; in a Christian society the functional was also
endowed with religious symbolism. It may be illuminating to take those stone
crosses that seem to have been erected at the roadside and assess these without
the complication of those that have a clear religious/preaching function in a
churchyard or a market/preaching function in the centre of a town or large
village. The wayside cross distribution map,
based on the Donn map of 1765, shows the position of 160 stone crosses, socket
stones, lone shafts etc that in the Masson Phillips surveys were not located in
villages or towns (i.e. excludes churchyard and market crosses) and were not
simple boundary stones. It also includes, in different colours, sites where
Masson Phillips reported that the stone had been moved to a churchyard or house
from elsewhere (47 sites) and sites where crossroad crosses have been recorded
in old documents (34 sites). To assist in the assessment, the sites of the main
Abbeys and monasteries in Devon are shown.
The distribution map
shows no evidence that the wayside crosses are associated with the monastic
institutions. There are no wayside crosses near the monasteries of east and
north Devon and very few near those on the SE
coastal area. Although there are many crosses in the corridor between Plymouth and Tavistock
where several abbeys are located, the large number of crosses in the upper
Teign valley does not correspond to any similar grouping of monasteries. This
does not imply that the monks were not responsible for, or did not use some of
the crosses as waymarkers, but there is no evidence here that they were the principle
builders of the wayside crosses.
The greatest density
of sites is to the NE and SW of the Dartmoor and in clusters around Exeter and Plymouth.
There are no clear wayside crosses to the in Eastern Devon
and very few in the North of the county. This suggests there is no direct link
to the prosperity of parishes (East Devon would generally be wealthier than Dartmoor). Although there are crosses along the main
highways, including the three main East/West routes through Okehampton,
Moretonhampstead/Chagford and Ashburton, there are many more crosses on what
are now minor roads and bridleways. Finally, there may arguably be a link with
availability of granite; dispersion from quarrying areas in the Upper Teign and Bovey to the east and Roborough to the west
would account for the two main distributions. However, this does not explain
why some sites have stones and apparently similar parishes have none. One major
factor maybe that in areas away from Dartmoor
it was more normal to erect wooden crosses (the precursors of finger posts) and
that the present distribution reflects the durability of the materials that
happen to have been chosen in these parishes. However, the Teign and Exe
valleys are well wooded, yet granite crosses survive here.
So, by process of
elimination we are left with the case for the granite crosses being first a
cultural choice for this region and the local distribution being functional;
located where a marker was needed at a decision point on the journey. These
markers would be more importantly on the minor routes where frequent use and
other travellers would make the paths easier t find. Typical decision points
are at the junction or crossing of routes to markets etc, paths to safe river
crossings, preferred crossing points on a watershed and markers on featureless
moorland. This leaves open the question of whether they were originally painted
or whitewashed. Clearly some had detailed carvings inserted in the face of the
cross and the tradition of dressing socket stones with garlanded gloves may
recall a time when these monuments were much more prominent in the landscape.
At present some are almost invisible as their lichen covered faces merge into
the greenery of the Devon bank and encroaching trees; Limewashing these stone
crosses would have been an obvious option for the medieval authorities, more
used to painted stonework than we are today. .
Below is a detailed
examination of one group of the stone crosses in Central Devon,
taking into the discussion not only those that are clearly wayside crosses, but
also those that are in churchyards.
Stone Crosses in the Exe Valley
The River Exe and its
tributaries (the main ones being the rivers Creedy, Culm and Clyst) drain the
land from the slopes of Exmoor in North Devon, the eastern side of Dartmoor and the western slopes of the Blackdowns. Although within this river basin there are many
high ridges, which were moorland until modern times, most of the crosses in
Masson Phillips’s survey were found in the valleys. This contrasts with the
distribution on Dartmoor where most crosses
appear to be out in the remote highland areas. Furthermore, there are more
crosses in the southern, lower parts of the basin than in the remote, less
populated parishes in the north.
The Exeter Highway Crosses 
Alphington Cross
A cluster of what are
almost certainly wayside crosses lie close to the banks of Exe, either side of Exeter. There is no
evidence for these having been erected close to a church or shrine. They are
made from well-carved granite with symmetrical arms, often a niche in the head,
chamfered shafts and shoulders on the socket stone – all Masson Phillips Type
C, so dating to the medieval period. They are generally located within half a
mile of the river or a tributary across an Exeter road; on the west bank at
Alphington (two) and Upton Pynes (the one at Little Johns Cross may also be in
this group); on the east bank at St Loyes, Stoke Canon (Burrow’s Cross) and
Rewe (the one at Pinhoe churchyard may also be in this group). The strange
cross at St Thomas
is excluded from this set because of its shape. These Exeter
crosses have all suffered some deliberate damage so one assumes were judged to
be iconic; since Exeter
was the focus for several Civil War battles there was plenty of opportunities
for the iconoclasts to do their work, particularly since several have niches
for small carvings. If we include the now lost Scarlett’s
Cross on Stoke Hill, each of the ancient highways into the city would have had
one cross; going clockwise from the Exe estuary, Alphington 1 and 2, Little
Johns, Upton Pynes, Burrow’s, Rewe, Scarlett’s,
Pinhoe and St Loyes. This would imply that there should be one on the Crediton
road (maybe the lost one at St David’s) and possibly on the Topsham road.
However, the distance from the city is different in each case and the
sight-line to the cathedral variable. So overall there is no clear
interpretation of these surviving crosses, though the probability is that they
were erected by the ecclesiastical institutions in Exeter. It is tempting to see these as
markers at key crossroads between the way to safe river crossings and a radial
road from Exeter.
Some of them are at natural boundaries (Little Johns and Pinhoe on a ridge
crossing; Burrow’s Cross on the Parish Boundary). A possible explanation I
favour is that they served as markers on the main routes out of the city and
were at points were the highway needed some constant care e.g. on the approach
to a small bridge or ford or on a steep hill/holloway where traditionally a
hermit might be installed to collect alms and pray.
The Exeter City
Crosses
A small number of
unusual crosses survive or are recorded around the city. This includes the
surviving ornate cross in St Nicholas Priory, and strange double cross in St Thomas. The crosses
said to have stood at the West Gate (Toisa’s), near
the East Gate (Carlos Cross in St Sidwells) and the
St Ianes Cross in Gandy Street may fall into this group.
Located either in or close to the city walls, it is likely their main function
was devotional rather than physical guidance.
Crosses in the Southern Parishes of
the Exe Valley 
Newton St Cyres Cross
There is a further
category of cross further out along the main highways from the city. These tend
to be slender and may not all be of granite. Other than the red sandstone cross
at Shillingford St George (found at Shillingford St Abbot) and Stumpy Cross
(now removed to Silverton Park) these are now in churchyards at Shillingford St
George, Kenn, Exminster, Newton St Cyres, Upton Pynes, Silverton and Bradninch
(the one at Kennford was imported from Cornwall).
Most are Masson Phillips Type B. It is difficult to judge what characterised
the original locations of these, if it was not the churchyard. The surviving
cross at Silverton churchyard is very ornate and that at Newton St Cyres had ornamentation (the sundial may have been a
niche?) and they do not lie close to major decision points or barriers on the
highway. Hence, one might speculate that these had more of a religious rather
than a guidance function, though this may still have been at crossroads on
isolated highways that climbed out of the Exe basin. The variety of stones
suggests that quarries to the east of the Exe, and those with accessed by sea
(Torbay or Lyme Bay), may have been used as the source
of materials. This may give them features more in common with the stone crosses
of Somerset and Dorset, than the granite forms
of Dartmoor.
The Clyst Valley
Crosses 
Broad Clyst Cross
A series of crosses
survive in the parishes of the Clyst
Valley, from Plymtree, through Clyst Hydon, Clyst St Lawrence,
Clyst Honiton and Clyst St George to Broad Clyst (all Masson Phillips Type B).
Although several are heavily restored, they are generally quite slender and in
the case of Clyst St Lawrence very ornate. This latter seems too
ornamented to have served as a guidepost and so preaching or other religious
duty seems the most likely function. They may in fact have always been
churchyard crosses (with the exception of Broad Clyst which was moved there),
but it would seem strange that only these churches chose to erect then whereas
elsewhere in the area there are none recorded. It is interesting to note that
the churches in the Clyst valley have retained intact several of the niche
statues, that have been removed or smashed in other parts of Devon.
Maybe this valley was sufficiently off the beaten track to attract reformers or
iconoclasts alike and retention of all types of stone memorial marks this.
These crosses may also be made from stones quarried east of the Exe, including
coastal quarries, and so may be more similar in style to Somerset
and Dorset than Dartmoor.
Watershed Crosses 
Windy Cross
At the edge of the Exe
basin there are stone crosses close to the watersheds. Windy Cross, high on the
Haldon Hills and situated at the head of a valley
coming over the watershed from the Teign has all the characteristic of a
wayside cross marking the best path, but is also a place to give thanks after a
long climb. In many respects these may be regarded as outliers of the Dartmoor, granite style. Further along the watershed at
Tedburn St Mary there is a similar cross and another at Cheriton Bishop where
roads passing west go into the River Taw catchment.
Materials and components
The majority of the
surviving stones are granite (Silverton Churchyard Cross and Shillingford St
George Wayside cross are exceptions), even though the parish churches in the
area rarely use this. The need for large, long pieces of faultless stone may
have influenced the choice of moorland stones for the crosses rather than the
stones available in small blocks from local quarries. The blocks of stone
needed for the cross and the shaft are very heavy and would have been extremely
difficult to move over and, especially up-hill. The presumption is that they
were shaped at source (rather like the part-formed Dartmoor
cross at Rippon Tor) and then moved downhill where
possible. It is likely that streams and rivers were used to transport the
stones on floats for the majority of the journey. Exmoor has no granite and so
the stones are more likely to have originated on the eastern slopes of Dartmoor. Although a water-borne journey down the Teign,
along the coast and up the Exe would appear rather circuitous, it would provide
an easier route than dragging the stones across country by road. Smaller
crosses such as the ridgeway stones may have come along the ridge above the
Teign.
The exceptional stone
at Shillingford looks like the stone in Torbay;
it may be significant that Torre Abbey held Shillingford Abbots, so this may
have travelled by sea and land from there. The slender crosses of the Culm and
Clyst valleys may have used local stone from the quarries from which the church
stone was won but the thick layer of lichen on most stones makes it difficult to
determine the exact material. It is assumed that the detail in the shafts at
Silverton and Clyst St
Lawrence could not be achieved
with granite
.
Shillingford St George Cross – in red stone 
Clyst St Lawrence Cross with
carving
Crosses normally comprise
a shaft with carved head which has a tenon joint into
the recess of a socket stone. The two parts are generally of the same material.
The stone has been shaped to form the head and tenon
and the edges of the shaft are often chamfered and the socket stones have
rounded edges and often a shoulder at each corner. This is probably the limit
of detail carving that was achievable with granite in the medieval period.
Niches, often round-headed have been cut in some stones and these may have
contained more elaborate carvings in wood or a more easily worked limestone.
The modern replacement parts have sharper edges and some have more intricately
carved heads.
For a list of Ancient stone crosses that may survive in
Devon, with an indication
of which of these can be seen as photographs on Flickr, click on the
highlighted text.
This page created by Alan Rosevear 5th May 2009.
Last Edited 26th June 2009.