Tapering cross-slab, set into the ground so that only face A is visible. The slab is broken at the right side which has resulted in loss of part of the base of the cross. The top left corner is also missing but no decoration seems to be missing from here.

A (broad): A latin cross, partly incised, partly in relief, fills the slab. This is defined by a double outline, in which some of the lines fail to carry through correctly. The slightly wavy cross-shaft runs the length of the slab and terminates at the bottom in a rectangular step or base.

Appendix D item (continuing tradition)

This slab was considered by Langdon to be a 'very rare' example in Cornwall of an early cross-slab, and in marked contrast with the floriated cross-slabs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 419). Thomas likewise thought that this and Wendron 2 (Ill. 327) are 'of early type but not necessarily all that much pre-Norman — the Wendron one seems the earlier (8th–9th century?)' (Thomas, A. C. 1966b, 87). Despite these assertions, the slab is considered by the present authors to be a post-Norman Conquest monument, and a rustic local example of a cross-slab grave-cover. The main reason for this is that the best parallels for the form of the cross and the step at its foot are found amongst the medieval wayside and churchyard crosses of Cornwall. The base or step is presumably a simple hill of calvary. Similar features are carved on a number of Cornish wayside crosses, for example Cury churchyard cross or Tregullow no. 2, St Day (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 267–8, 272–3). However the best parallel is on the Mertheruny cross, where the hill of calvary supports a latin cross which, like Lanivet 4, is double-outlined on the cross-head (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 264–5). With chamfered angles, the Mertheruny cross is likely to be of thirteenth-century or later date.