Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

For over a thousand years, the Parish Church of Brailsford has borne witness to the Christian faith. It stands between the villages of Brailsford and Ednaston, and although both of these could be thought of as dormitory villages for Derby, just five miles away, neither has yet grown to the point where it makes contact with the church. In the churchyard, just outside the porch, in the shade of a yew tree reckoned also to be a thousand years old, stands the base and lower part of the shaft of a pre-Norman Cross.

A fine memorial to Charles Fairfax, the early 20th-century Rector
who so appreciated the ancient cross base (Nov 2002)

This is not the only pre-Norman cross to incorporate a warrior in the design (indeed, one of the cross shafts at Norbury, only seven and a half miles away as the crow flies, also has an image of a sword-wielding warrior on it) but the Brailsford cross is unique among Mercian-type shafts in having the warrior below the band that divides the round and square parts of the cross shaft. There are a few other crosses of similar shape, where a band separates the round and square parts of the cross shaft, such as for example at Leek.

Brailsford Parish Church is tucked out of the way down a track past the old and new Rectories.
Follow the signpost off the A52, and have faith; eventually you come to another sign,
and not far beyond that, the church.

Acknowledgement: I am indebted to the current Rector of the parish for some of the detailed information about the cross and the circumstances of its discovery.

* The Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (and corresponding Latitude/Longitude) given at the top of the pages describing individual sites usually refer to the location of the closest or most prominent entrance to the site where the monument is to be found - e.g. a gate into a churchyard. For monuments located in open country, or at a significant distance from the site entrance as just defined, the co-ordinates usually refer to the exact location of the monument.
Please allow for a small error in the co-ordinates of up to a couple of dozen metres.

Thanks to the people at streetmap.co.uk, if you click on the Grid References in the magenta boxes on the site pages,
you'll see an extract from the relevant Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Landranger map!

As the official mapping agency of the United Kingdom Government, the Ordnance Survey produces the definitive maps of the country. They contain a wealth of information.
For more details, visit www,ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

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The Brailsford Cross on a modern plinth November 2000		Charles Fairfax, Rector of this parish from 1904 onwards, was well aware of the presence in the churchyard of the base of an ancient cross. He expressed a wish to be buried near the base of the cross, in the triangle of grass outside the porch. As his grave was being dug, in July 1919, the spade struck something hard. After a bit more digging, the lower part of the shaft of the cross that had stood on the base that Fairfax admired was revealed. It is an irony that he probably never even suspected the cross was there, and yet without his interest, it would not have come to light. Two plaques adorn the modern plinth. The first one, seen in the picture to the left, tells of the discovery of the cross shaft, while the other, on the right-hand face of the new plinth (shown below) is a memorial to Charles Fairfax, whose remains are interred beneath it.
		The original and replacement bases of the cross November 2000

The lower part of the shaft is cylindrical - well, perhaps barrel-shaped would be a better description - and the upper part, separated by a carved band around the shaft, is nearly square in cross-section. The location of the top of the shaft is not known - perhaps it is waiting to be discovered somewhere else in the graveyard. The very lowest part of the cross is not ornamented, but in the part immediately below the band, scrollwork surrounds the shaft, and the scrollwork is interrupted by the carved representation of a warrior with a drawn sword. The ornamentation on the square part of the shaft is made up of plaits and key-pattern carvings.


The marvellous decoration on the shaft can be seen in these four views taken in November 2002. On this particular visit, there was no low winter sun to cause the deep shadows seen in the other pictures on this page.