Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

On the day I visited St. Mary's Church in Great Urswick in Cumbria, it was the picture of village tranquillity. Sheep, provided by a local farmer, were grazing in the churchyard to keep the grass down in an ecologically-friendly manner.

The church door was locked, as sadly so many are in these untrustworthy days, but there was a notice on the door to say where the key-holder was to be found. Upon request, a friendly parishioner came and opened up the church. Inside the church, mounted on one of the window-sills, there are two separate pieces which are the remains of pre-Norman crosses. Both of the pieces are from the shafts of crosses.

The larger piece appears to be the older, from the early tenth century, and in addition to carvings of saints on the front side, there is a runic inscription, shown enlarged below. The back of the cross has a scene which is easiest to interpret as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This larger piece is well preserved, which was the result of it having been used as building material at some stage in the past. It was discovered beneath some plaster in 1911 when renovations were in progress at the church. (Who knows - there may be other fragments as well waiting to be discovered in the same way.)

"Tunwini set after Torhtred a monument to his lord. Pray for his soul"
(translation according to Collingwood (1927) p.54)

The smaller fragment comes from near the top of a cross-shaft, and there is a display case containing a drawing of a reconstruction of the cross made in 1909 by W G Collingwood.

Collingwood's reconstruction of the cross from which the smaller fragment came.

Aside from the cross fragments, there are other remarkable artefacts in the church. Among the highlights are a triple-decker wooden pulpit and some splendid stained-glass windows.

Great Urswick is just south of the main A590 road, between Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness.

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

Inscriptions
Nevern/Nanhyfer (The inscription has been picked out in yellow for clarity.)	Latin	Eliseg's Pillar/Piler Eliseg, Escomb, Llanddewi-Brefi, Nevern/Nanhyfer
	Ogham	Nevern/Nanhyfer
	Old English	Great Edstone, Kirkdale, Wensley
	Runes	Bewcastle, Old Byland, Urswick
	Welsh	Tywyn
Inscriptions come in several recognisable forms. They may be in different languages, including Latin and Old English, and they may use different scripts, including Ogham, runes, and the alphabet which evolved into the one in current use (though Old English has extra letters compared with today). In some cases, the same inscription is given in more than one form, and such monuments are particularly useful, as they can provide information about the decipherment of such scripts, much like the Rosetta Stone did for Egyptian hieroglyphics. The inscriptions can tell various things: sometimes they give the name of the person commemorated by the monument, sometimes its maker. Occasionally, they convey information about historical circumstances; these are often the most valuable inscriptions, because they allow definite dates to be assigned to the objects. In the case of those inscriptions which appear simply to be a name, some discretion has been applied in categorising them; generally, they are classified according to the language that uses a similar script.

* 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 12:34
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