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Object type: Part of cross-head
Measurements: H. 38 cm (15 in); W. 46 cm (18.5 in); D. 20.5 > 14 cm (8 > 5.5 in)
Stone type: Coarse-grained, abundantly megacrystic, micaceous granite. White feldspars up to 2 x 0.6 cm form about 50% of the rock; white mica up to 3 mm across forms about 1%, with the remainder of the rock formed of roughly equidimensional clear quartz up to about 8 mm across. Bodmin Moor Granite
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 47-50
Corpus volume reference: Vol 11 p. 133
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Part of a cross-head, comprising the upper arm and the two horizontal arms. Overall, the piece is asymmetrical in both shape and decoration. The head has widely splayed arms with wedge-shaped ends and curved arm-pits. The holes between the cross-arms and the slightly recessed ring are not cut straight, but taper inwards from both sides.
A (broad): A double roll-moulding surrounds each of the cross-arms. Within this, on the left arm, is a small round boss and on the right, a more rectangular-shaped moulding. The decoration of the top arm is worn and indistinct. At the centre of the cross-head is a small boss.
B and D (narrow): Undecorated
C (broad): In each cross-arm, within what is probably a single roll-moulding, are slight traces of a probable triquetra. That in the left arm is the clearer. At the centre of the cross-head is a small, low boss.
From its size, this fragment must represent the remains of a very small cross. Although it is now worn, it appears to have been poorly designed and carved. The absence both of a decorated shaft and of any exact parallel for the head makes dating difficult, but the lack of symmetry and the crudity suggests that it is probably rather later in date than St Cleer 2 and 3.
St Cleer is the church of a large moorland parish; it is dedicated to a Continental saint. Other than the cross-head, there is no material evidence of an early medieval origin for the church, although this seems probable. The fact that the church sits within a very large curvilinear enclosure, and that an aisled church was built here in Norman times, may reflect the significance of the site within the local area (Sedding, E. 1909, 54–7).
