Monument record MDO43751 - Grave slab in the churchyard of All Saints Church

There is a cross in relief carved on a stone outside the church porch. No record of the stone has been found; it stands 3ft.8ins high and is 2ft.2ins. broad, and 6ins. thick. A tradition exists that a cross formerly stood close by the roadside pool called "Cross Pool" where the limit of a plot of ground called "Church Land" was marked by a stone in the hedge. No trace of this cross can now be found. <1-2>

(SZ 08649684) This slab of stone with the relief Maltese cross is cemented against the west wall of the north porch. Its original purpose is uncertain, and its original site is only traditionally associated with Cross Pool. It is not the type of cross normally used to mark a boundary, and appears more like the top slab of a tomb. In this connexion it is noteworthy that the top or face side edges are chamfered, and that the two ends have been cut off or broken off neatly so that the original length was perhaps considerably more than 3ft. 8ins. (For site of possible Md. cross at Cross Pool see SZ 09 NE 54). <3>

This type of inscribed cross with V-shaped armpits tend to be more common in the Saxo-Norman overlap, and the chamfered edges support the idea that it is a coffin-slab. <4>

<1> Pope, A, 1906, Old Stone Crosses of Dorset, 79-80 (Bibliographic reference). SWX1408.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1931, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1930, 52 (Serial). SDO34.

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 25-NOV-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Cramp, R, 2006, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: Vol VII. South-West England, 129 (Monograph). SDO17427.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457845 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 3:54PM