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. St. Margaret's church in Hornby is one of them.

Just inside the porch is a collection of ancient stones which have been collected from the church and its vicinity. One of them (I am making an assumption here, because on the day of my visit the stone was away in Preston at the AD2000 exhibition, but a framed description on the wall says it is usually to be found there) is a fragment of a Saxon cross which is much the oldest of the exhibits.

The Hornby Cross fragment on display at the AD2000 exhibition in Preston, November 2000.
In the main panel on the front, two figures stand in front of a tree. Beneath them are five circles,
which, from the two fish below them, one can take to represent the five barley loaves
mentioned in the Gospel account of Jesus miraculously feeding 5,000 people.
The plaits carved on the side of the cross are exceptionally fine and intricate.
All things considered, this is both a work of love and a masterpiece.

The cross fragment is not native to its current location, only being lodged in the church in 1903. A framed description of the cross on display in the church says of its provenance, "it is generally supposed that many years ago it was removed from the barn at the Priory Farm, which, along with the farm house, occupies the site of the old Priory, a Chantry of the Abbey of Croxton in Leicestershire, since when it has been carefully protected."

St. Margaret's Church, Hornby, is on the main A683 road through the village, with parking spaces across the road. (The "A92" in the map above is evidence of a bug in the Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 package and can be disregarded.)
You can click at the relevant places on the map to see the pages at this site for Gressingham 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).

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St. Margaret's Church is a fine mediaeval building. The octagonal tower was added in the early 1500's. The picture on the right shows some of the mediaeval grave lids on display inside the church. The lid on the left of the picture includes in its decoration a representation of a chalice; perhaps its occupant was a priest.