Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

There are several churches in or near the valley of the River Lune which are home to the remains of Saxon-age monuments. The Church of St. John the Evangelist in Gressingham is one of them. Several fragments, presumably from the same original cross are usually on display here, but on the day I visited, I was unlucky, because the fragments that are normally in the church were away at Preston in the excellent AD2000 - 2000 years of Christianity in Lancashire exhibition that ran throughout that year. The only fragment I saw that day was the part of the cross shaft that has been reused in the wall of the west end of the church.

The western wall of St. John's Church, Gressingham, November 2000. Look closely...

... and you'll see that one of the stones is rather more distinguished than the rest.

W G Collingwood's book, Northumbrian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age, mentions Gressingham only in passing, noting that there is a "well-marked example neatly carved with regular plaits". The carvings visible on the stone built into the church wall, whilst undoubtedly neat, are of vine scrolls rather than plaits. Of the two fragments on display at Preston, one of them (below) shows extremely similar patterns, and may well be another piece of the same shaft.

The piece of the Gressingham cross shaft shown in the AD2000 exhibition at Preston.

The other piece at Preston was from the head of a cross, showing a circle containing seven bosses, with plait carving evident on the arms of the cross.

The piece of the Gressingham cross head shown in the AD2000 exhibition at Preston.

There is a very much more modern work of art at St. John's Church in Gressingham which needs to be mentioned. Just outside the gate is a pebble mosaic of an eagle. Life, as they say, is full of coincidences; this beautiful representation of the eagle is reminiscent of a design at Gosforth in Cumbria, though the bird in that one is a goose - Gosforth, of course, also features at this web-site because of its Viking cross and other remains.

An eagle, the symbol of St. John the Evangelist - a pebble mosaic outside the church gate.

St. John's Church, Gressingham, is one of several in the area with old cross remains.
The road linking the A683 to Gressingham is prone to flooding
and includes a splendid but narrow stone bridge on quite a sharp bend, so take care.
(The "A92" in the map above is evidence of a bug in Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 and can be disregarded.)
You can click at the relevant places on the map to see the pages at this site for Hornby and Melling.

* 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

Click here if you need an explanation of the terminology on these pages

Click here if you would like to see a bibliography

Click here if you would like to download the freeware "Mordred" font (in True-type for Windows)
so that the headings used on these pages will then look like the following:

Click to go to Pre-Norman crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales	Read about the Saints
Click to go to Mediaeval crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales

Locality maps at this web-site have been developed using Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 (and later editions).

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site. Latest update: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 11:52
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