Location:
Built
into the roadside garden wall of the private house next to Swallerton
Gate. O/S Grid Ref: SX/73909/79149 Longitude/Latitude (Degrees+/-): -3.78297/50.59840 Map location: Click here to view map. Purpose: Not known. Size: 1 foot 5 inches (0.43 metres) tall, 1 foot 2 inches (0.36 metres) across the arms. The inscribed cross is 7 inches (0.18 metres) high and 7 inches (0.18 metres) wide. Information: The origins of this cross are not
known, although it's recent history is interesting. According to the
present owner it was amongst a pile of rubble about to be placed
as hardcore for the flooring of the extension, previously used to house
bullocks and now a holiday cottage. As the stone was being moved, a voice
called over the garden wall, informing the owner that what he was holding
was the head of a mediaeval cross. The knowledgeable stranger was none
other than Harry Starkey and his timely intervention resulted in the cross
being saved and used in the
construction of the garden wall, rather than lost to posterity. The roadside face has an incised cross in
the centre of its head. On the corner of the garden wall can be seen a granite gatepost. I am informed by the present owner that a gate previously spanned the road at this point and was part of the boundary between two commons with separate grazing rights. An elderly local once told the owner that he could remember as a boy standing duty at the gate and charging travellers on their way to market a penny to pass through. |