Now re-erected to the east of its original position, in a new layby on the north side of the A66 trunk road, adjacent to the east-bound carriageway (NY 90451227)

See Discussion. Until recently it stood 'on a very slight mound of natural rock' (Robinson 1993, 22) by the south side of the trans-Pennine road over Stainmore (Margary 1967, no. 82), within the Roman marching camp (Roy 1793; Richmond and McIntyre 1934) and close to the Cumbrian border. Both shaft and socket were temporarily removed to the Bowes Museum in August 1990, and the area beneath excavated. No burials were found.

Extremely weathered, with post-medieval graffiti initials in several places, and an Ordnance Survey bench mark on the socket. The Rey Cross is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, no. 32713.

The shaft is rectangular in section, but indented near the top with a shallow depression on all four faces. The original south face (face C) has been cut away at the top. The surfaces are plain, with no evidence of edge mouldings.

Appendix A item (stones dating from Saxo-Norman overlap period or of uncertain date).

Collingwood identified this as part of a pre-Conquest cross, of which 'the neck and lower part of a wheel-cross head seem to be visible' (in Calverley 1899, 264). Bailey could find no such traces recently, preferring to see the nipped neck and surmounting swelling as 'a phallic-like form' (Bailey n.d.), though he suggests that the shaft may be inverted, with the uncarved portion now uppermost (op. cit.).

At the bottom of the original west face (face B) Collingwood'saw 'forms too regular for mere weathered roughness', which he interpreted as 'a rudely hacked pattern of diverging straps with pellets'. Such traces if they ever existed have since eroded away (Ill. 1155).

The features which Collingwood recorded would be typical of Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture in Cumbria and northern Yorkshire, and he compared the forms on the western face with carvings at Beckermet St John and Burton in Kendal (Calverley 1899, 264; cf. Bailey and Cramp 1988, 57–61, 82–4). An Anglo-Scandinavian shaft not far distant on Dere Street, the Legs Cross (Cramp 1984, 122, pls. 108–9), also served as a marker on a hill crest by the side of a Roman road. Ekwall suggested that the name Rey or Rere derives from Old Scandinavian hreyrr, 'cairn', an element used in modern Swedish in the sense of a boundary-mark (Smith, A. 1928, xlvi). It was in the vicinity of the Rey Cross location that Eric Bloodaxe was assassinated on Stainmore in 954 (Luard 1890, 503; Calverley 1899, 266–8).

The shaft's function was very likely to mark a territorial boundary: in 1258 the Bishop of Glasgow regarded the 'Rer Cros in Staynmor' as the limit of his diocese (Stevenson 1839, 65), and various other medieval sources confirm the Rey Cross as the meeting point of Scottish Cumbria and England (Boethius 1527; Holinshed 1587; Skene 1867; Fordun 1871; Bain 1884; Bain 1887; Wyntoun 1906; Wilson, J. 1915; Anderson 1973; Bower 1989). In 1611 Speed described a stone cross with carvings on opposite sides of the shaft which he interpreted as images of the English and Scottish kings. One can only assume that these early references apply to the present relic.

Uncertain, perhaps tenth century

Boethius 1527, lib. XII, fol. CCLXVII; Holinshed 1587, 178; Camden 1607, 595; Speed 1611, 419; Gibson 1695, 763; Hutchinson 1776, 13, 16, pl. II, fig. 1; Nicolson and Burn 1777, I, 578, II, 258; Gough 1789, 96; Roy 1793, 73–4, 110, pl. XVII; Gough 1806, 259, 341; Hodgson 1820, 163–4; Stevenson 1839, 65; Maclauchlan 1849, 350; Gorst 1851, 159–61, and fig. on 160; Longstaffe 1852, 140–1; Skene 1867, 204; Fordun 1871, 115; Fordun 1872, 107; Haddan and Stubbs 1873, 11; Simpson 1881, 70–5; Guest 1883, II, 107, 285; Bain 1884, 15; Bain 1887, 135; (—) 1887–8c, 397; Lees 1888, 448–57; (—) 1893, 50–1; Ferguson 1894, 52; Neilson 1895–7, 272–3; Bogg 1898, 106 and fig.; Calverley 1899, 78, 264–8, 295, pl. facing 264; Wilson, J. 1901, 297, 299; Collingwood 1902, 240–1; Morris, J. 1904, 360; Wyntoun 1906, 401; Collingwood 1907, 269, 385, pl. on 384; Bogg 1908, 344, fig. on 345; Collingwood 1908, 142; Smith, L. 1909, 32; Collingwood 1912, 122, 126; Page, W. 1914, 43; Collingwood 1915, 298; Wilson, J. 1915, 531; Collingwood 1926b, 2; Collingwood 1927c, 1–10; Smith, A. 1928, xlvi, 305; Morris, J. 1931, 33, 361, 418; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 218; Richmond and McIntyre 1934, 51; R.C.H.M. 1936, liii; M'Intyre 1936–8, 81; Bellenden 1941, 170; Mee 1941, 35; Ramsden 1948, 17–18, 25, fig. on 17; Jackson 1955, 86; Ekwall 1960, 385; Kirby 1962, 90–1; Barrow 1966, 24–5; Pevsner 1966, 353; Wilson, P. 1966, 86; Stenton 1970, 221; Anderson 1973, 288; Barrow 1973, 142–4; Morris, C. 1976a, 144; Morris, C. 1976b, 11; Wood, M. 1981, 175–6, ill. on 176; Fisher 1982, 567; Smyth 1984, 228, 230, 232; Macquarrie 1986, 7; Lang 1988a, 8; (—) 1989, 15; Bower 1989, 78–9; Robinson 1990, 65–6, ills. on 62, 64; Robinson 1993, 20–2, pl. on 21; Bailey 2001, 118–20; Vyner 2001, 4–5, 9, 14, 117, 118, 120–1, 134–6, 171–2, 179, figs. 73, 99, 116, 117 [1]

[1] It has not been possible to take account of the reports in Vyner 2001, which was published while this volume was in page proof. Bailey n.d., which J.L. quotes on p. 283, was an earlier draft of Bailey 2001. (Eds.)