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Object type: Cross-head
Measurements: H. 53 cm (21 in); W. 59 cm (23.25 in); D. Built in
Stone type: Medium-grained, micaceous yellow sandstone (Carboniferous)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 177 - 9
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 81
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Circle head, type 3, with arms probably of type A9. A roll moulding borders both the circle and the arms of the cross-head. No information is available about decoration on the sides which are no longer visible.
A (broad): The circle carries a three-strand plain plait and there is similar decoration on the right arm. The left arm is decorated with a four-strand plain plait. Unidentifiable ornament filled the panels in the lateral 'ears' extending beyond the circle. The centre of the head, together with the lower and upper arms, is occupied by a high relief carving which tapers towards the top, its crown surrounded by a ring; the surface of this object is decorated with an incised herring-bone motif.
Apart from its central motif this cross-head fits into the general pattern of Cumbrian circle-heads (see pp. 31–2). The central motif has been variously interpreted. To Calverley it was the head of a beast with a ring through its snout. A more likely alternative is that the conical object is a mitre, topped by horns, of the type seen on the Doorty cross from Kilfenora in co. Clare (de Paor 1955–6, 61 and fig. 5). On this interpretation the cross may have carried a bust, or even a full-length portrait, of a bishop. A bust portrait of a bishop is known from Crofton, Yorkshire, on the lower arm of a cross-head (Collingwood 1915a, 161) but the ecclesiastic there is capped; the type of mitre seen at Kilfenora and here proposed for Bromfield was, however, certainly in use by the eleventh century.
