Newland Cross
Courtesy of: Geoff Davis. Uploaded: .
Drawing
by Thomas Graham Jackson
Pooley wrote the following of this cross in 1868 :
"This is a restored cross. All that remained of the old cross, a work
of the fourteenth century, consisted of five steps, and a massive socket into
which the shaft was formerly fixed, but which, after its disappearance, had
been replaced by a shorter stone, having the lines of the customary sun-dial
marked upon it. Two points are worthy of note in the base, namely the broaches
of convex outline by which the oblique sides of the upper octagon are brought
into the lower square; and the sculptured niche ornamented with an ogee trefoiled
head, in the east face. The niche was probably used as a Reliquary, or as a
receptacle for Pix, on the occasion of Divine Service being celebrated there.
In the work of reconstruction it was found necessary to take down the whole
of the steps, which had sunk, and became almost a ruin. The stones were carefully
marked and reset in their old relative positions , great care being taken to
not to disturb the weather staining on their surface. But the base was too
much injured to be retained as the base of a new Cross, and was therefore accurately
copied in sound stone. The old base was put together as well as the condition
allowed, and now stands in the churchyard hard by the Cross.
The new Cross, which is placed upon the substructure consists of three stages
: the lowest is the tapering irregular octagon shaft, which is tenoned into
a mortise in the top of the base; the next is formed by the four canopied niches,
facing the four cardinal points, and containing each the sculptured figure
of an angel, with outspread wings and bearing a crown; the third and uppermost
is a Cross decorated on each side with flat surface carving of foliage, and
crocketed at the junction of the lower limb with its pedestal. The height of
the whole from the ground to the top of the Cross is 20ft. Round the shaft
runs the following inscription : "This Cross was restored in memory of
Margaret Birt, A.D. 1864."
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