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THE BOW STONES

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Description

DESCRIPTION

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Twin cross shafts and a double-socket stone, probably Late Anglian, 10th-11th century, (not in situ), stand on a ridge alongside a moorland road between Disley and Macclesfield.

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[SJ 97398131] BOWSTONES [G.T.] (1)

These are a pair of cylindrical cross shafts set in a single
massive base stone. Each has a fillet around its top and traces
of interlaced ornament which seems, decisively, to indicate an
Anglian date: probably not later than the 10th. c. There is a
tradition of Robin Hood's men stringing their bows here.
They are, in part, comparable with a group of stones in the north
of England which Collingwood (a) dates pre-Norman.
Pape (3) thinks they are most likely post-Norman and regards them
as a degenerate type of the Clulow Cross (late Anglian). (2-3)

As described. See G.P. AO/62/278-3.Field visits on 09.10.62
and 17.03.66 (4)

The Bow Stones. Each stone bears the widely spaced letters 'VV'
and an 'L' of similar type. The former may probably be the mark
of Sir Ralph Wyttle, who lost or withdrew his benifice about 1541,
and lived in an enclosure of the Disley Common near the Church.
After the destruction of the crosses following the Reformation,
he may have taken the larger fragment of shafts and installed
them on his own land.
The 'L' unquestionably stands for 'Legh' or 'Lyme' and one of the
Legh's must have been responsible for the move from lower Disley
to the highest part of the Lyme estate, probably in the second
half of the 16th century. Moving the stones and perhaps marking
them with a cross, may partly have been the reason for a charge
of recusancy being brought against Sir Piers Legh in 1580.
The larger stone also bears the letters 'AT' with an 'H' beneath.
The 'H' may be for Hanly (or Handley). Sir Peter Legh who carried
on the rebuilding of Lyme Hall begun by his father, and was in
possession from 1687 to 1744, embellished the Handley boundary
stone with Roman lettering, and may also be responsible for the
above lettering. (5)

SJ 9738 8130. The Bow Stones Anglian cross shafts. Scheduled RSM
No 22589. (6)

Full description. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1954

( 2a) General reference

Pre-Norman Northumbrian Crosses. 1927, 5-8. (W.G.Collingwood)

( 2) General reference

Antiquity, XI, 1937, 294-9. Photo. (C.W.Phillips).

( 3) General reference

Tr. N. Staf. Fd. Club. 80, 1945-6, 39. 'Round-shafted pre-Norman Crosses'. (T.Pape)

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 TPW 09-OCT-62

( 5) General reference

T Lancs and Ches A S 78 1975 65-3 Fig 16 (S Marshall)

(6) General reference

English Heritage Scheduling Amendment 1/9/93

(7) Richard N Bailey 2010 Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Volume IX: Cheshire and Lancashire

9 Page(s)78-9

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