Old Crosses and Lychgates

by Aymer Vallance

THE average form of standing cross, and such to which the vast majority of them, not in churchyards only, but also on village greens and squares, or by the wayside, belongs, is that of the shaft-on-steps type. The fully developed cross of this sort consists of steps or calvary, socket, shaft or stem, capital or knop, and head. The latter, it should be remarked, is that part of the cross which, no doubt on account of the sacred or legendary significance of the figures sculptured upon it, is now most commonly absent. The remaining elements consisting of such simple units, it is truly wonderful how great variety of treatment is to be observed in crosses of the kind. The resources of their design may almost be said to be unlimited. It rarely happens that any two examples are found quite alike in all respects. For though the simplest of motifs be adopted, yet a minute change of detail, such as a hollow chamfer instead of a plain, flat bevel, or the setting of an angle pedestal diagonally instead of squarely with the side it adjoins, or some such other slight divergence, if insignificant in itself, will not fail to produce, by consistent repetition, a widely different result in the aggregate. The parts which lend themselves more appropriately than the rest to ornamental treatment are the socket, the knop, and most of all, the head. The steps, whether circular, rectangular, hexagonal, or octagonal on plan, are not made the subject for ornament, except rarely, and then it is confined to a moulded overhanging drip, or a moulded set-off in the angle between the tread and the riser, as for example, at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. [20]), Charlton Mackerel (Fig. [19]), and North Petherton, in Somersetshire (Fig. [77]), and Raunds, in Northamptonshire (Fig. [45]). Raunds cross has two steps, and the riser of the upper one is enriched with late-Gothic quatrefoil panelling. Such treatment, however, is altogether exceptional; and even in this case can scarcely be authentic, seeing that the quatrefoils are not properly spaced, as they must have been spaced, had they been designed for the position they now occupy.

45. RAUNDS, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

On the other hand, the stone block or socket, into which the shaft is mortised (and furthermore, as a rule, secured with lead), was regarded as a thoroughly appropriate place for ornament. It is most usually square on plan, and its upper bed made octagonal by means of steps or broaches, in the shaping of which a very great variety is manifested. The commonest form of step is diamond-pointed, but there are others which take the shape of a sort of round hump. Examples of plain diamond steps occur in the sockets of Thatcham (Fig. [61]) and Water Perry (Fig. [4]) crosses. The socket at Stanway, Gloucestershire (Fig. [60]), with its severely geometrical triangles and lozenges, is of most unusual form. It measures 1 ft. 10 in. high, exclusive of the fractured stump of the shaft. Convex angle-stops occur at Carlton (Fig. [63]), Cumnor (Fig. [59]), Stringston (Fig. [5]), and Wicken (Fig. [62]). The socket of the last-named cross is 2 ft. 6 in. square by 1 ft. 8 in. high. Its octagonal shaft is 11½ in. square at the foot, with pointed stops reaching up to a height of 9 in. Some of the round stops, at the corners of sockets, have a diagonal ridge extending to the outer angle, as at Carlton (Fig. [63]), Stevington (Fig. [17]), and Stringston (Fig. [5]). The knop of the last-named, it may be mentioned, consisted of four demi-angels, holding shields, but their heads have been broken off, and themselves made almost unrecognisable through defacement. To resume, the sockets of the crosses at Elmswell in Suffolk, at Bradford Abbas and Stalbridge (Fig. [58]), both in Dorsetshire, and of at least a dozen crosses in Somersetshire, including Doulting (Figs. [74], [75, and 76]), Evercreech, Minehead, North Petherton (Fig. [77]), West Pennard, and Wraxall, have angle-pedestals on every alternate cant of the octagon. These pedestals may have been designed for statuettes of the four Evangelists. Whatever the subject of the figures, the effect of the whole group, with the tall shaft in the middle, must have been very handsome. At Dundry (Fig. [78]) and Wick St Laurence, both in Somersetshire, instead of detached or engaged pedestals, there are, at the angles of the square socket, clasping buttresses with mouldings. The plan of Dundry, Wraxall, and Yatton is made extra elaborate and complex by means of a plinth, forming an eight-pointed figure, inserted between the socket and the topmost step of the calvary.

At Headington (Figs. [69] and [70]), Ombersley (Figs. [66], [67, and 68]), Raglan (Fig. [71]), and Wicken (Fig. [62]), the sockets are handsomely panelled with late-Gothic tracery ornament, principally quatrefoils. The sockets of Doulting (Figs. [74], [75, and 76]) and West Pennard crosses, in Somersetshire, have emblems of the Passion carved on the sides; that at Charlton Mackerel (Fig. [19]) has the Evangelistic symbols in the same position. More rarely, as at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. [20]) and Long Sutton, both also in Somersetshire, and at Rampisham and Stalbridge (Fig. [58]), both in Dorsetshire, and Yarnton, Oxfordshire (Figs. [51] and [52]), the panels of the socket contain sculptured figure-subjects. An octagonal socket at Westcote, Gloucestershire, has a standing figure under a trefoiled niche on each side. This is an early example, since its date is the thirteenth century. At Didmarton, in the same county, is a fourteenth-century socket, octagonal on plan, having a half-length figure sculptured on every alternate side.

The churchyard cross at Dorchester, Oxfordshire (Fig. [65]), had lost its original head by the time that Buckler made his sketch in 1813. According to him, the lower step was 6 in. high, and the next one above it 10 in. high. The socket was 1 ft. 7 in. square on plan, by 1 ft. 6 in. high; the shaft being a monolith 8 ft. 6½ in. high from socket to head. As to the socket, the transition from square to octagon, by means of stops, is very effective. The cross has since suffered drastic "restoration." The treatment of the stops on the socket may be compared with that at Keyingham, Yorkshire (Fig. [64]), and Headington, Oxfordshire (Fig. [69]).

The Whitefriars' cross (Figs. [72] and [73]), so-called, about a mile from Hereford, is believed to have been built, shortly after the great plague at Hereford in the fourteenth century, by Lewis Charlton, Bishop from 1361 to 1369. On the summit of a lofty flight of seven steps rises a high pedestal, hexagonal on plan, each side of which has a sunk panel, sculptured with a shield charged with a lion rampant. The cornice is embattled, and the whole was crowned with a moulded socket. Such was the state of the monument in 1806, the shaft and cross-head having completely disappeared, thereby reducing the total height to some 15 ft. A new shaft and cross, disproportionately large, were "restored" by the year 1875. The peculiar feature of this cross is the lofty pedestal, which scarcely has any parallel, with the exception of the crosses of Helpston, in Northamptonshire, and of Aylburton and Clearwell, both in Gloucestershire.

As to the shaft, whether it be cylindrical, clustered, square, or octagonal, it usually tapers, but is very seldom ornamented, beyond having a stop near the foot of each alternate cant in an octagonal stem. A few crosses may now be described, illustrating different treatments of the shaft.

The cross in the churchyard at Rocester, Staffordshire (Figs. [47] and [48]), has three steps, each 6 in. high. The socket is 2 ft. 4 in. high, and the tapering stem, which is 1 ft. square over all at the bottom, is 11 ft. 9 in. high, exclusive of the capital. The stem, in the form of four keel-moulded shafts, with a vertical strip of dog-tooth ornament between them, must be of early date, possibly as early as 1230.