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Object type: Cross-shaft and -head
Measurements: H. 196.5 cm (78.6 in); W. 45.5 cm (18.2 in) (head), 39 > 35 cm (15.6 > 14 in) (shaft); D. 19.5 cm (7.8 in) (head), 22.5 > 19.5 cm (9 > 7.8 in) (shaft)
Stone type: Feldspar megacrysts, up to 15 mm long, broken, but not obviously kaolinised, together with roughly equidimensional quartz up to 5 mm across, form the bulk of the rock; a few scattered flakes of white mica up to 5 mm are present. St Austell Granite
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 294-6
Corpus volume reference: Vol 11 p. 235-6
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A cross of rectangular section with deeply incised decoration. It has an oval or horseshoe-shaped head above a flat band or collar; the shaft has a marked entasis and tapers strongly towards the base. It is decorated with large incised chalice or hour-glass-like motifs. The simple round granite base into which the cross is socketed is believed to be original.
A (broad): Within a double incised edge-moulding on the head is an incised Latin cross with an incised vertical line down the centre, and incised vertical lines at the ends of the horizontal arms. Below this, the collar is plain. The shaft has a double incised edge-moulding which fades out two-thirds of the way down the shaft. Within this the decoration consists of two large hour-glass shapes, one on top of the other. The bottom third of the shaft is plain.
B (narrow): On the head, and extending onto the collar, is an incised edge-moulding with possible traces of a central incised line. On the shaft are three plain panels defined by incised lines. The only 'decoration' is a small shallow hollow near the top of the bottom panel and a faint incised line at the bottom of the middle panel.
C (broad): On the head, within an incised edge-moulding which stops short of the collar, is a simple incised latin cross with a small hollow at the centre. Symmetrically placed below each of the horizontal cross-arms are two holes, each 5–6 cm in diameter and sunk approximately 4 cm deep. The collar is plain. Below this, the shaft has a single incised edge-moulding which runs to the bottom of the shaft where it turns up in a U-shape. The main decoration on the shaft is a single giant incised hour-glass or chalice-shape, with a vertical, off-centre line running down it. Just over half way down the shaft, on the right side, is an incised semi-circle, close to the edge-moulding.
D (narrow): On the side of the head is an incised edge-moulding, which terminates on a horizontal incised line. Below this, the collar is plain. On the shaft are two panels defined by an incised moulding. Within the top panel are a few irregular incised lines and within the lower are two and a half small incised hour-glass or chalice shapes, one on top of the other.
Appendix D item (continuing tradition)
This is a unique monument in terms of its shape, layout, and decoration. Latin crosses incised in outline as here are very rare in Cornwall: all are on wayside crosses, and all are in west Cornwall (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 260–71). On a monument at Mertheruny (in Wendron parish, not to be confused with Wendron 3, p. 248; see Langdon, Arthur 1896, 264–5), a latin cross appears on a cross with chamfered angles, suggesting a date in perhaps the thirteenth century.
The nearest large, incised churchyard cross is at Roche, an adjoining parish, but the two are very different (Ills. 312–15). The only real point of similarity is in the holes on the head. If, as has been suggested for Roche, these are derived from the holes within the cross-arms of a ring-headed cross, then it is likely that St Dennis, with only two, is copying the Roche cross, which has four larger and deeper holes (although asymmetrically placed).
The origin of the 'hour-glass' motif is uncertain. The only other example of anything like this in Cornwall is on the incised cross from Nine Maidens Down (Wendron 5, Ills. 334–6), a member of the distinctive Carnmenellis area group (p. 107). On the Nine Maidens cross, however, the 'hour-glasses' or chalices are smaller and only one part of a more complex decorative scheme. On the basis of this, the latin cross on the head and the overall resemblance in form to the wayside crosses, a post-Norman Conquest date is suggested for the St Dennis monument.
St Dennis church, a chapelry to St Stephen in Brannel (Henderson, C. 1925, 85, 197), is dedicated to St Denys of Paris, a dedication first recorded in the fourteenth century. The dedication appears to have arisen from an original place-name in dinas, 'hill-fort' (Padel 1988, 78), since the church is located in a marginal location overlooking Goss Moor, within a large churchyard with circular rampart-like enclosing wall. There is no reason to suppose that the Iron Age fort was re-used as a religious enclosure at an early date: the cross and the Norman font are the earliest tangible evidence for it (see Thomas, A. C. 1965, 31, although he does not mention the font).
