<< Our Photo Pages >> St John The Evangelist (Crosscanonby) - Ancient Cross in England in Cumbria
Submitted by Anne T on Friday, 17 August 2018 Page Views: 1663
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: St John The Evangelist (Crosscanonby) Alternative Name: St John's Church (Cross Canonby)Country: England County: Cumbria Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Cockermouth / Maryport Nearest Village: Crosscanonby
Map Ref: NY0691939004
Latitude: 54.737357N Longitude: 3.447208W
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 14th Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 St John The Evangelist, Crosscanonby: We had arranged to meet the Reverend Mary at the church at 2pm. Between Gilcrux and here we had an hour to spare, so went into Cockermouth for lunch and a quick walk round the town. Travelling through Dearham and across the A596 to Crosscanonby, as we dropped down a small hill after having crossed the A596, we realised how close this church is to the Solway Firth (according to UK Grid Finder measurements its 900m).
This little church is side on to the road, and is virtually invisible until you reach the gate into the churchyard, although the ‘this church is open’ board gave something away.
I’d not looked at the AS Corpus notes I’d brought, but straight away we spotted the hogback against the south eastern corner of the nave.
Walking inside was a real treat. This is clearly a very old building. Reverend Mary (just ‘Mary’ she said) told us this church used to be the mother church for Maryport and the farm house next door (to the west of the church) used to be part of the monastery; the monks used to process from the monastery to the church; rumour has it there is a tunnel from the farmhouse to the church, but it’s never been found.
The church is pretty special, although I focussed on photographing the stones in the porch whilst Andrew spoke to Mary about the structure of the building, as I was conscious of taking up Mary’s time and we needed her to come across to Dearham to open the vestry for us. I’d love to go back and spend more time here.
This ancient church is recorded as Historic England 1235084 and Pastscape Monument No. 8967. Largely a 12th century building with 13th, 14th and 19th century additions/restorations, this church boasts four sculptured stones and a Viking hogback.
For more information about the individual stones see the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculptures entries for:
Cross Canonby 01, part of a cross shaft from the 10th century;
Cross Canonby 02, part of a cross head from the 10th to 11th century;
Cross Canonby 03, also known as The Thunder Bolt Stone, a grave marker the Corpus dates to possibly the 11th century, but the church thinks may be much earlier;
Cross Canonby 04, part of an eleventh century grave cover; and
Cross Canonby 05, a Viking hogback.
All the above stones are kept in the south porch. The church is usually open during daylight hours. With its location near the Solway Firth and the farm building to its west forming part of what was the old monastery, the vicar tells us this church used to be the motherchurch for the Maryport area. The building is very old, and boasts a twelfth century alabaster font with superb carving, similar to the font at Dearham.
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