More information : (SD 62001300) Headless Cross (NAT) (1)
(SD 61901303) "The bottom half of the cross looks like part of a Roman altar". (2)
The Headless Cross. "There used to be a headless cross in Anderton but old Mr Ridgway of Ridgemont removed it many years ago" (a). (3)
SD 61901302 According to Mrs Coupe this feature was brought back from Ridgemont many years ago, and re-erected on or near its old site. The stone is cemented into a thin stone slab, now broken, and stands within an enclosure bounded by four small cylindrical pillars. No conclusions could be reached regarding the origin of this stone. The possibility cannot be excluded that the stone is the work of some fairly recent eccentric. In the churchyard at Rivington there are many stones, some with 17th century dates, and most bearing complex carvings and designs, and quite unlike any other stones of comparable period previously encountered in this region. According to Mrs Coupe these stones in the churchyard also came from Ridgemont suggesting that a former occupier may have manufactured these stones as 'objects of antiquity'. On the top of the sculptured stone is a flat slab which appears to be the table of a sundial. The stone is obviously not part of the feature to which it is now fixed, but its original place of origin could not be ascertained. It is considered that the authenticity of the whole of this feature is very suspect. The position given by Winstanley (2) applies to a spot height and is not that of the sculptured stone. (4)
The so-called 'Headless Cross' is now re-erected on or near what is believed locally to be its original site at SD 61901302. It consists of an upright sculptured stone 0.6m by 0.3m and 1.0m high, with, on one side, the lower half of a human figure in relief, and on the other a crude lattice design. This is capped by a flat slab, which is an inscribed guidestone, with the seating for a sundial. As it stands, it is clearly not remains of the cross that the traditional name suggests stood here; nor is the lower stone part of a Roman altar. It seems more likely to be a composite sundial, but it is now impossible to say whether it is an original assemblage, or was constructed at its interim site. (5)
A carved stone circa 550mm tapering to 300mm by 1400mm as seen in the garden of Hollowforth at Woodplumpton (SD 50 34) in 1977. It and the stone at Anderton were subsequently shown to be parts of the same monument and it was established that the Headless Cross was a cross shaft, the decoration suggesting a Medieval date, twelfth century at the earliest. The portion of the shaft at Anderton, with remains of sundial, grade 2. (6-7)
SD 6189 1300. Headless Cross, Grimeford. Scheduled RSM No 23748. Part of the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon decorated cross measuring 1.05m high by 0.64m wide and 0.27m deep, on a modern base. It is decorated on all four faces. On the top of the shaft there is a post-medieval slat sandstone slab, originally thought to have been the table of a sundial, which has latterly been used as a direction stone by having the words TO PRESTON, TO WIGGAN, TO BOULTON and TO BLAGBURN carved on its sides. The shaft was reputedly found during construction of a local reservoir and re-erected on or near what is believed to be its original site. It is thought to be one of the wayside crosses marking the medieval route between Fulford and the path which crossed Rascahay Brook, between Heath Charnock and Adlington, referred to in a medieval document printed in the Chartulary of Cockersands Abbey and dated c.1184-1190. The four small cylindrical stone pillars close to the base of the shaft are excluded from the Scheduling. (8) |