Details

The monument includes a medieval wayside cross situated to the south of the
church in St Juliot's churchyard on the north coast of Cornwall.
The wayside cross survives as an upright granite shaft with a round, `wheel'
head set in a rectangular base. The overall height of the monument is 1.97m.
The principal faces are orientated north-south. The head measures 0.49m high
by 0.51m wide and is 0.2m thick. Both principal faces bear a relief equal
limbed cross formed by four triangles whose points do not quite meet at the
centre of the head, their outer edges curving in line with the narrow bead,
0.03m wide, around the outer edge of the head. The shaft measures 1.33m high
by 0.4m wide and is 0.2m thick. At the neck are two rectangular projections,
one on either side of the shaft; they are 0.11m high and project out 0.08m
beyond the shaft top. The rectangular granite base measures 0.97m east-west by
0.73m north-south and is 0.15m high.
The wayside cross is located to the south of the church. It is believed to be
in its original position, and it has been suggested that it is the original
churchyard cross. It is positioned next to a stile, which is the southern
entrance into the churchyard, marking a footpath from St Juliot's Church
through the Valency valley to Boscastle.
The two chest tomb graves to the north of the cross base but within its
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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 wayside cross has survived well, and is a good and complete example of a
wheel-headed cross. It acted as a way marker on a footpath from St Juliot to
Boscastle, and on a more local level as a waymarker on a route within the
parish to the church. There is no record of it having been moved and it is
believed to be in its original position, maintaining its original function on
its original route.
This is one of three crosses now present in St Juliot's churchyard.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Langdon, A G, Old Cornish Crosses, (1896)
Langdon, A G, Stone Crosses of North Cornwall, (1992)
Other
Consulted 1995, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 653.2,
Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SX 08/18: Pathfinder Series 1325
Source Date: 1986
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England