Details

The monument includes a medieval wayside cross-base situated on the verge at
the junction of a path leading to St Buryan with a road along the southern
coastal belt of Penwith.
The wayside cross-base is visible as a large, rounded, rectangular block of
granite. The cross base measures 0.83m north-south by 1.22m east-west and is
0.45m high. The rectangular socket in the top measures 0.36m long by 0.27m
wide and is 0.16m deep. The sides of the cross-base are rounded and slope
downwards from the socket. This cross-base is formed from a natural granite
boulder.
The cross-base is located close to another cross-base, the subject of a
separate scheduling (SM 24270) on one of several church paths, now a public
footpath, radiating out of the parish from the church and village of St
Buryan; the cross marks the junction between that path and the route around
the southern coastal fringe of the Penwith peninsula. The courses of both the
path and the coastal route are also marked by other medieval wayside crosses.
St Buryan, the site of a major Celtic monastery traditionally founded in the
early tenth century by Althelstan, forms the focus of an unusually large
number of wayside crosses within its parish, several of which bear distinctive
designs early in the known sequence of wayside crosses.

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 medieval wayside cross-base 125m west of Merry Maidens stone circle
survives well and is a good example of a natural boulder being utilised as a
wayside cross-base. It has been suggested that it originally supported the Nun
Careg Cross, 180m to the north east on the southern route around the Penwith
peninsula. The cross base forms an integral member of an unusually well
preserved network of crosses marking routes that linked the important and
broadly contemporary ecclesiastical centre at St Buryan with its parish. The
routes marked by this monument are also marked at intervals by other crosses,
demonstrating the major role and disposition of wayside crosses and the
longevity of many routes still in use.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Langdon, A G, Stone Crosses of West Penwith, (1997)
Thomas, C, 'Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age Sculpture and its Context' in Ninth Century Sculpture in Cornwall: a note, , Vol. 49, (1978)
Other
Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SW 32/42; Pathfinder Series 1368
Source Date: 1980
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England