Details

The monument includes a village cross on a two step calvary, situated in the
village of Poole Keynes. The cross is complete and sits on a junction of three
roads.
The cross includes a two step calvary, socket stone, shaft and head. The first
step of the calvary is a plain square. It is 1.75m long and 0.575m high;
the next step is 0.95m square and 0.2m high. These two steps are composed of
old weathered stones now cemented together. Above this the socket stone is an
hexagonal block of stone bearing the inscription `Restored in Commemoration of
Queen Victoria's Jubilee Michael (indecipherable) MP AD 1887'. Each side of
the hexagon is 0.425m long and it is 0.35m high. The socket in which the shaft
is embedded is 0.3m square. The shaft, with broaches at its base, is a square
pillar with chamfered corners. It is c.1.5m high, surmounted by a
square box and weathered decoration, probably a cross. The stone blocks of the
calvary are medieval, but the socket stone, shaft and head are Victorian.
Excluded from the scheduling is the metalled road surface where this falls
within the cross's protective margin, although the ground beneath is included.
The cross is Listed Grade II.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

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.

Despite the socket stone, shaft and head being later than the calvary, the
village cross at Poole Keynes survives well with many of its original elements
intact in what is likely to be its original location. Its position in the road
makes it an imposing monument and a landmark in the village.

Source: Historic England