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Object type: Cross-head
Measurements: H. 15.2 cm (6 in); W. 31.8 cm (12.5 in); D. 14.5 cm (5.75 in)
Stone type: Pale yellowish grey (10YR 8/1–2) fine to medium-grained sandstone, consisting of quartz grains of 0.2 to 0.3mm diameter with scattered 0.2mm black glauconite grains. Tisbury/Chilmark stone, Tisbury Member, Portland Stone Formation, Portland Group of Vale of Wardour, Upper Jurassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Pls. 388-92
Corpus volume reference: Vol 7 p. 199-200
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A (broad): This cross-head, type B10, has no edge mouldings. The centre is sunken and surrounded by eleven deep pellets, each about 12mm in diameter. The outline of the surviving armpits is chamfered.
B and D (narrow) and E (top): Plain
C (broad): Plain and burnt slightly
F (bottom): Broken and re-tooled
This piece is not weathered and could perhaps have been set against a wall behind an altar or over a tomb, like the cross at Weyhill in Hampshire (Tweddle et al. 1995, 269–70, ill. 473). Normally freestanding pre-Conquest cross-heads have edge mouldings, but if this is copying a metal cross, as the prominent pellets could indicate, then it may still be pre-Conquest.Its resemblance to Weyhill, and Tweddle's comparison with the cross presented by Cnut and Emma on fol. 6r of the New Minster Liber Vitae (Temple 1976, no. 78, ill. 244), could imply a later pre-Conquest date.
