Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

Penmon is a site of Christian witness and worship that has stood the test of time. The first recorded Christian devotion here was in the early sixth century, when Eilian set up a cell, and his nephew Seiriol, after whom a nearby holy well is named, and in whose memory the Priory Church is dedicated, came to live and preach there.

The Priory Church is an ancient building, with the most recent parts of it being about 500 years old, and the oldest parts of it going back to the year 1140, but even so, it is the "new" church on the site, having replaced a much earlier Celtic Christian settlement. Two Celtic crosses are displayed within the church, though originally both stood outside.

There are many other features of interest at the Priory church, including some mediaeval stained glass in the south transept, but you do need to be able-bodied to reach it, as there are a number of steps to climb to reach the platform on which the church stands. The priory ruins are worth a look, and St. Seiriol's well and cell nearby. You could make a day of it by also visiting Beaumaris Castle, some four miles or so to the south, just off the bottom of the map shown below.

The signs in Welsh and English affixed to the Priory's Refectory wall explain the history of the site.

Penmon Priory is further along the road than the settlement which is signposted as Penmon village.
There is a small car park near the Priory church, and water collects there on rainy days.

Viking ("Anglo-Norse") sites
Gosforth	Aspatria, Burnsall, Dearham, Dyserth, Gosforth, Halton, Hovingham, Lastingham, Maen Achwyfan, Muncaster, Oswaldkirk, Penmon, Penrith, Staveley (North Yorkshire), Sinnington, Stonegrave, Urswick, Waberthwaite

Fonts

Ilam

Eyam, Ilam, Old Byland, Penmon*, Ripon

A font is a receptacle for water that is used in the Christian initiation rite of baptism. Functionally, it is a bowl on a stand. However, many churches have fonts that are ornately carved, reflecting many of the same traditions as the carved stone crosses. Because baptism is the start of the Christian journey, it is common for churches in which the fonts are built into the fabric of the church for the fonts to be near to the entrance door, extending the symbolism - the font is the first thing one encounters on entering the church.

* The font at Penmon Priory is in fact an ancient cross base that was separated from its cross at some stage in its history; it was made into a font in the Victorian period.

* 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 12:19
Links on my pages can point to other web-sites. If you find that the administrators of those web-sites have made changes which mean you can't access them, please let me know, so I can update or remove the links. As far as I know, none of my links point to sites likely to contain offensive material - but if you discover otherwise, please let me know, as I would like to remove such links from my pages.
return to my home page.	Frequently asked Questions	send me an e-mail
©1996 to 2003: Christopher J. Tolley

South face	This cross stands near the north wall inside the oldest part of the Priory Church. Dating from the tenth century, it is almost complete, save for a section of about 30cm missing between the top of the shaft and the head. The front face of the shaft (the south face as it is currently displayed) includes a panel which depicts a person flanked by creatures which apparently have human bodies but animal heads. The central figure might have a nimbus or halo, indicating that he is a saint, so perhaps the other figures represent demons. One possible interpretation would that it shows the tale of the archetypal hermit St. Anthony, which could be a way of referring to Seiriol. The only other places on the cross where there are pictorial representations are at the foot of the south face, where a figure is shown on horseback, and at the foot of the west face, where a small group of figures may represent a farmer driving cattle.
		East face	West face



The other faces of the cross shaft all contain knot patterns of various types, with the sides having plaits - double-stranded on the east, linking in to a key-pattern, and treble-stranded on the west. Perhaps the most interesting of these designs is on the north face, which cannot be photographed because the cross stands so close to the Priory wall. The design on that face is of an interlinked chain (sometimes called vertebral rings) which is similar to the design found on crosses as far afield as Gosforth in Cumbria and Burnsall in North Yorkshire. This, as much as any of the other patterns serves to date the cross to the tenth century, being a characteristic design of the school of Manx carvers led by Gaut Bjarnarson.
Although all four faces of the cross base were carved, erosion has removed much of the patterning.

North face	The second cross within the Priory Church stands in the south transept, on a modern stone base, though its original base (below) is to be found at the west end of the priory, near the first cross. This cross is complete except for one of the cross-arms (or "ears", as some would say) which was cut off in the mediaeval period when the cross was cannibalised for use as a door lintel in the Priory's Refectory block. Now happily restored to its vertical position, this cross is engraved with designs made up mostly of straight lines, rather than plaits, and containing no pictorial elements. The head has plain crosses front and back, each surrounded by a ring, with triquetrae filling each of the quadrants.	South face
	The original base of the cross, lost, then found, then converted to a font in the 19th century.