Base: in hedgerow, Nunnery Hill, Lanhadron Farm, on right (east side) of unclassified road from St Ewe to Polgooth. Shaft: lost

Probably first recorded 1803 in present location when base and shaft both existed (Polwhele 1803, ii, 199n–200n; see Okasha 1993, 129–32, no. 19). By 1880, only base remained, buried in present location (Iago 1878–81, 398). Probably unburied by 1895 (Langdon, Arthur and Allen, J. R. 1895, 51). An eighteenth-century manuscript (British Library MS Stowe 1023) contains drawing of cross-base and, beside it, a vertical column containing lettering which was presumably the text from the shaft (p. 47, re-numbered as p. 29; for discussion, see Okasha 1993, 129–32, fig. II.19(ii)).

Poor: base only remains, and in worn condition; situation poor: in overgrown position and not well cared for

The roughly square cross-base contains a rectangular socket-hole. According to Iago (1878–81, 399), this is sunk halfway through the thickness of the stone. Only the upper face of the stone (side E) is now visible.

E (upper): Incised on this, between the edge of the stone and the socket, are two parallel lines, 13 cm apart, forming a frame for the inscription. There is no further decoration. The letters measure 6 to 7 cm in height and are set anti-clockwise around the stone, facing outwards. The text may be complete but is now too highly deteriorated to be sure. The script used was probably predominantly insular. The text reads:

The eighteenth-century drawing mentioned above shows what was probably the text on the lost cross-shaft (see Okasha 1993, 129–32, fig. II.19(ii)). This text appears to have ended: EMIANCINOINOMINE+.

The text reads: [LU...E–] [CR]VCEM [+–], the only legible word being apparently crucem 'cross'. The text on the lost cross-shaft may have ended with the word nomine 'in the name', but the rest is not now interpretable (see Ill. 350).

Regrettably the inscription is of no help in dating the monument, other than in a general attribution to the pre-Norman period. As the stone is presumably the base of a cross, and Cornish crosses fall between the late ninth and eleventh centuries with most in the tenth and eleventh, this is the date range suggested for the stone.

As an inscribed cross-base this stone is unique in Cornwall unless the Doniert Stone (St Cleer 2) is included, although the latter is a decorated pedestal rather than a base (Ills. 51–5). All other possible early medieval cross-bases are unelaborated, the best example being that supporting Padstow 2 (Ills. 164–8). The shaft with vertically-set inscription which accompanied the St Ewe base has a parallel, however, in Lanteglos by Camelford 1 (Ills. 131–5), although the inscription on the latter is in Middle English, not Latin (p. 165). Cross-shafts with vertically-set inscriptions of this general period can be paralleled in Wales (for example Nash-Williams 1950, 88, nos. 86–7, and figs. on pp. 89 and 94) but not in other parts of England, presumably because this vertical layout reflects that of the earlier inscribed memorial stones of Cornwall and Wales.

St Ewe 1 (Lanhadron) is located beside a road, two miles from the parish church. Other than its roadside location, its context is not clear.

Tenth or eleventh century

Polwhele 1803, ii, 199n–200n; Iago 1878–81, 397–401 and figs.; Langdon, Arthur and Allen, J. R. 1888, 313, 318; Langdon, Arthur and Allen, J. R. 1895, 51, 57, 60, no. 31; Hammond 1897, 279; Daniell 1906, 241; Langdon, Arthur 1906, 412, 420, pl. V, fig. 33; Henderson, C. 1925, 94; Macalister 1929, 184 and fig.; Hencken 1932, 280–1, 297; Benyon et al. 1937, 24–5, 88, and fig. on p. 87; Doble 1937a, 7–9 and fig.; Macalister 1945, 458–9, no. 480, and fig.; Henderson, C. 1953–6b, 163; Sheppard 1967, 99; Pool 1977, 140; Higgitt 1986b, 141; Okasha 1993, 129–32 and passim, no. 19, figs. II.19(i–ii); Langdon, Andrew 2002, 37, no. 34, and figs.