I have visited· I would like to visit

Anne T visited on 4th Jun 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 9th Century Anglo Saxon Cross Fragments, St John The Evangelist, Gressingham: Having decided upon a day out in Lancashire/Cumbria on an Anglo Saxon Cross hunt, this was our stop of the day. We approached from junction 35 of the M6, taking the B6254 through Over Kellet and taking a right hand turn, named Fall Kirk, down to Gressingham. This is a pretty little village with the church on the junction of Fall Kirk and Back Lane, sited on a hill next to a small stream which joins the River Lune to the south. Not having phoned through before visiting, we were delighted to find the church open, with a lovely Norman arch over the entrance door on the south wall. But whilst it was warm and sunny outside, this Grade 1 listed church was cold inside. Whilst the Pastscape and Wikipedia notes talk about more than one fragment of 9th cross inside the church, we could only spot one, despite a thorough hunt by both of us. This was strapped into the north-east corner of the nave, just before a large tomb for George Marton, so I was unable to turn it round to photograph the reverse side. The 9th cross shaft built into the external south-west corner of the nave was easy to spot, with the sunlight picking out the decoration nicely [note: having reviewed the Pastscape notes, another fragment might be inside the vestry, which we didn't check]. There was a pulpit of dark wood dated 1714 on the south side of the church, and retained some of the original box pews. There was also a tapestry on hessian against the south wall, opposite the chest tomb and the stone fragment which caught my imagination – someone has put a lot of hard work into this.

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.