<< Our Photo Pages >> Waberthwaite Cross - Ancient Cross in England in Cumbria
Submitted by nicoladidsbury on Wednesday, 27 April 2005 Page Views: 7856
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Waberthwaite CrossCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 1.641 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Cumbria Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Millom Nearest Village: Waberthwaite
Map Ref: SD10039510
Latitude: 54.343483N Longitude: 3.385474W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 24th Oct 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Ancient crosses, St John the Baptist Church, Waberthwaite: This was our last planned stop of the day and dusk was drawing in. I confess to being a little tired of getting in and out of the car by this time, but a drive down a narrow country lane to reach a cluster of farm houses by the estuary of the River Esk was worth it. Outside the church of St John the Baptist looks derelict and unloved, with the door being guarded by a simple wire frame held shut by a wire closure.
Finding ‘Waberthwaite 02’ cross shaft and basewas easy, as it sat immediately to the east of a tall sundial. ‘Waberthwaite 01’ was a bit more of a challenge until I realised it had been laid flat on the plinth of the sundial (verified by the notes inside the church).
Simple manipulation of the wire frame in the church porch allowed entry, and the door to the church had been left unlocked - inside it is small but cosy, like stepping back into the 18th century. There are box pews put in by the Victorians and the bells are rung from the outside.
Notes in the church read: “The churchyard contains a sandstone sundial, possibly 18th century. Its height is explained by the fact that it was designed to be read by someone on horseback. Behind it is the shaft of an ancient preaching cross. For many years this was part of the lintel of the church porch. The cross head has been lost. It is very worn, but the carving includes interlaced foliage and, on the east face, pictures of a horse and two figures facing one another. Lying on the base of the sundial is another broken cross shaft rescued from the threshold of the porch in the 1800s. Again the cross head is lost. For many years the larger cross was thought to be 9th century or later, but recent archaeological discoveries put it earlier, in the 8th century. This makes the Waberthwaite Cross one of the earliest in West Cumbria. The existence of the crosses is evidence of a very early Christian settlement on this site.”
It wasn’t difficult to imagine early Christians stopping off at the site to worship by the cross.
nicoladidsbury have visited here
High cross shaft in St John's Churchyard, Waberthwaite
Info from magic-map
The monument includes a late ninth/early tenth century Anglo-Scandinavian high cross shaft located in the churchyard to the south of St John's Church, Waberthwaite.
The shaft is constructed of red sandstone and is rectangular in cross section tapering slightly towards the top. It is 2m high, measures 48.5cm wide by 27.5cm thick at its base, and is set into a sandstone socle or base. The shaft is decorated on all four sides. The east face is divided into four panels and depicts animal figures together with roll moulding and interlace carving. The west face depicts a single panel divided by a vertical mounlding into two parallel strips of interlace carving. The north face depicts interlace carving while the south face also depicts interlace with the addition of a bird-like head towards the top of the shaft. This decoration combines Viking period interlace carving with the earlier Anglian artistic tradition of winged birds and animals. The cross shaft was found in 1825 during rebuilding of the church porch and subsequently reused as a lintel. It was moved to its present position between 1884-89 and set in what is thought to be its original socket.
Although the cross head has been lost, the high cross shaft in St John's churchyard displays a good example of ninth/early tenth centuary Anglo-Scandinavian art styles. In particular it represents an impressive fusion of Anglian and Scandinavian artistic traditions linked with a local taste for parallel strips of ornamentation.
National Monument Number 23779
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