On display in the church

Found reused in fill of later medieval grave during controlled excavations in 1976

St Thomas-?-Becket

Damaged and wo

Part of the arm and the ring of a ring-headed cross. The inner end of the arm is roughly broken, the break rising from right to left. The outer end is convex, the curve being continuous with that of the outer edges of the short surviving portions of the ring, each of which terminates in a rough break. The sides of the arms are concave the curves being continuous with those of the inner edges of the ring.

A (broad): Bordered by narrow, plain, raised mouldings of indeterminate section, the face is decorated in relief with a flaccid, disorganised interlace.

C (broad): The decoration is largely defaced, but seems to have been similar to face A.

E: Narrow, plain borders carved in relief define a panel of what was probably four-strand plain plait, separated by narrow, undecorated zones from further, fragmentary, interlace.

The fact that this piece is a ring-head serves to place it in the late pre-Conquest period. This type was introduced by Scandinavian settlers into England, from a source in the Celtic west or north-west (Collingwood 1927, 137–9, fig. 153; Bailey 1978, 178–9). The flaccid and disorganised nature of the interlace decoration may support this dating. Few cross-heads of this type occur in the south-east, but there is an example from South Leigh, Oxfordshire (Ill. 406), and closely related types from London, (St John Walbrook) 1 (Ills. 347–8) and (All Hallows by the Tower) 2 (Ills. 343–4).

Tenth to eleventh century

Freke 1981, 252 - 4, pl. II; Tweddle 1986b, i, 99, 250 - 1, ii, 431 - 2, iii, pl. 71 - 2a