In the basement of the west tower of Pocklington church, Yorkshire, is a beautiful late-Gothic cross-head (Figs. [114, 115]), fitted on to a modern stem and base. On the obverse is sculptured the Crucifixion between Mary and John; on the reverse is the Trinity, while a single figure occupies either end. Beneath is the inscription: Orate pro aia(top parenthesis over word), Iohis(top parenthesis over 'his') Soteby.
At Cricklade, Wiltshire, are two crosses of the fifteenth century, one in St Mary's (Fig. [116]), the other in St Sampson's churchyard (Fig. [117]). The latter example, however, was not originally in the churchyard, but stood, at least down to 1807, as the market or town cross. Both these crosses must, as built, have closely resembled one another, but that at St Mary's is now much the more complete of the two. It stands on steps. The head is lantern-shaped, an oblong on plan, the overhang being corbelled forward by means of a demi-angel at each angle. The tabernacling is rich, and the figure-sculpture within it almost intact, though weather-beaten. The subject on the west is the Crucifixion between Mary and John; on the south, the Assumption; on the north, a bishop; and on the east, a queen with a knight. The cross now at St Sampson's has no steps, but the socket is handsomely panelled with sunk quatrefoils round its sides. All the figure-sculpture from the lantern head, which was formerly corbelled on angels, like the other, has been missing at least from 1806 onwards, if not earlier.
47. ROCESTER, STAFFORDSHIRE
CHURCHYARD CROSS, PLAN AND SECTIONS
The village crosses of Crowcombe (Fig. [118]), Bedale (Fig. [119]), Bonsall (Fig. [120]), Repton (Fig. [123]), Brigstock (Fig. [122]), and Child's Wickham (Fig. [7]), especially those which stand on high flights of steps adapted to the fall of the ground, all illustrate how charmingly such structures group in with their surroundings, and how great an ornament they contribute to the village landscape, even though they may have been robbed of their original head. The cross at Brigstock is comparatively intact. It bears the royal arms (quarterly France modern and England), and the initials E.R., with the date 1586. The cross at Child's Wickham dates from the fifteenth century. It is, unfortunately, disfigured by an eighteenth-century urn in place of the mediæval cross-head. In many cases the original heads have been replaced by square blocks with sundials. At Steeple Ashton (Fig. [121]), however, the classic column and sundial-block and globe are no doubt all of one date, the late-seventeenth, or the eighteenth century.
48. ROCESTER, STAFFORDSHIRE
CHURCHYARD CROSS