South Harton Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.10  Date Added: 1st Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: South Harton Wayside Cross: As we drove along the minor roads from the Bishop’s Stone towards South Harton Farm, the sun went in and a haze started to drift across the fields and it started to become very chilly.

This cross simply leans against the dry stone wall, just to the west of the gated driveway leading to South Harton Farm. It has very obviously been cemented together, but is none-the-less spectacular, and I’m glad we braved the narrow lane to find this cross.

Out of curiosity, I walked to the gate and looked to see if the cross was visible from the other side of the wall, but it is hidden by the drystone wall and the hedge.

Bishop's Stone (Lustleigh)

Trip No.130  Entry No.9  Date Added: 1st Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Bishop's Stone, Lustleigh: This stone is on a corner of a busy road junction of three minor roads– I needed to pick my time to step part way across the road to photograph the stone from the front. The metal railing shown in the Pastscape photo is now largely hidden by a beech hedge. The stone goes about around a metre or so back into the garden of the house. It’s a lot bigger than it looks at first glance. We were also lucky that the bright sunlight also helped to show up the incised shield.

Datuidoc's Stone

Trip No.130  Entry No.8  Date Added: 30th May 2019
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Writhelstan inscribed stone, St John The Baptist, Lustleigh: Expecting this to be the prettiest village in Devon, I was a little surprised to find I didn’t agree. The church is right in the middle of the village, and we managed to park by the south wall of the churchyard, immediately opposite the village pub.

Going into the church, the Writhelstan stone was stuck on the west wall of the nave in between, and partly hidden by, a gas heater on its south side, and wooden stacking chairs to its northern.

We couldn’t ascertain if the churchyard was oval/circular as a road had been cut to its northern side.

Some lovely old grave slabs in the floor of the chancel, northern chapel and nave. Interesting rood screen with pomegranates and heads. Whilst we were in the church, there were around four to five other sets of visitors, none of whom looked at this inscribed stone, which I thought was odd, but then it was well hidden unless you knew what to look for.

There was also a cross on the village green, which looked to be modern. Could not find this on Pastscape.

There was a photo frame with some information about this stone, which must have been on the wall, but had recently fallen off and the glass had shattered. I carefully moved it from the floor onto the top of the heater and photographed it.

“This ancient stone was removed from a position in the paving below the inner doorway of the church porch on March 13th 1979, in order to preserve it from further wear. It belongs with a well recognised series of commemorative stones erected in the post-Roman period between about AD 450 to AD 600.
The inscription probably read:
“DATUIDOCI CONHINOCI FILIUS”
The language is Latin, although the personal names involved are British. Both the names are in the genitive case, so that the whole inscription requires to be understood as “The stone of DATUIDOC the son of CONHINOC”. Nothing is known of either man, but it is likely that Datuidoc was a Christian, and was buried in the already existing graveyard here about AD 550 to 600, where the stone was erected to mark his grave. It can be assumed that Datuidoc at least, and probably his father also, were men of local importance in this area of eastern Dartmoor during the sixth century AD”.
Lustleigh is one of only four church sites in Devon with an inscribed stone
J.C. Wallace Kemp & A.P.W. Robertson (Churchwardens).

After walking around the church, and photographing the modern cross on the church green, we adjourned to the pub, The Cleave, opposite the church. As it was such as warm evening, we sat in the garden around the back of the pub, listening to the myriad of bird song.

Higher Combe Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.7  Date Added: 30th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Higher Combe Cross: If we could have obtained access to this cross, access would have been a short walk across a field of improved pasture. Shame the gate was double-chained with two electric fences virtually up against the gate. Lovely horse in the field, though.

Andrew resorted to standing on top of the low stone wall just to the south of the cross, where there was a sufficient enough gap in the trees/hedges to see through. A shame, because it looked as if it was in such a lovely location, just above a small stream, and against an old hollow way.

Sanduck Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.6  Date Added: 25th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Sanduck Wayside Cross: We were going past this spot to get to the next cross on our list, when we spotted this on the OS map, so decided to stop and look for it. We parked outside a very lovely house built around a courtyard; as the road was very narrow, we pulled into a small tarmacked area opposite the house, thinking we’d only be there for a couple of minutes. As we stopped, a lady came out of the house and into her garden. The cross was on a bank at the top of the grass verge, just to the western end of her garden. We said hello to the lady and she replied, and wandered back to the house.

Because the cross was immediately adjacent to private land and against a hedgerow with tall trees around, we didn’t ask to get into the field behind as the back of the cross would have been hidden by the hedge.

Horspit Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.5  Date Added: 24th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Horspit Cross, North Bovey: This was to be an afternoon of ‘cross sighting’, with the weather gradually turning from a bright, sunny day to a dull, almost misty day by the time we’d finished.

This squat, small cross sits right on a road junction, with a large boulder immediately adjacent. We managed o park in the entrance way to a new, but abandoned house, which had a tarmacked driveway next to the road, but large, padlocked gates to stop intruders.

The large boulder in front of the cross on the Pastscape photograph I thought looked like part of the cross shaft is in fact just a boulder. The cross has a bench mark on it, which we tried to find; Andrew eventually find it on the ‘front’ of the cross, the top of it showing only just above the vegetation that had grown up around the cross.

Moretonhampstead Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.4  Date Added: 24th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Moretonhamstead Village Cross: The remains of this old village cross can be found, surprisingly, on Cross Street, outside the gate at the south side of the churchyard. I confess I had not expected to see a wayside/village cross mounted in a large flower bed! I got some strange looks from locals and visitors photographing this flower bed from different angles.

We then went to explore the church (St Andrew's) then for soup and a cup of tea in a nearby café (the Gateway Tearooms) with superb table service. Carrot and ginger soup with freshly made soda bread. Yum!

Challacombe Cross Settlement

Trip No.130  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Challacombe Cross/Shapley Common Hut Circles: Having seen quite a few hut circles in Northumberland, I wasn’t expecting much from this site – a few stony-outlined circles in the bracken, but what a lovely surprise this site was – hut circles with very large boulders making up the perimeter. It turned out this was just a taster of the sites we saw around Merrivale, Stanlake and Kestor.

From the Leeper/Leapra Cross, we walked WSW along the B3212 to SX 70049 83251, where an old hollow way/track leads up onto the moor. Armed with the GPS for the first part of the walk,

The hut circles can be clearly seen on UK Grid Reference Finder. The HE entry gives a location just to the west of the line of hut circles – they run from SX 69750 83029 in the south to SX 69779 83133 in the north. Unfortunately the GPS attachment for my camera seems to have stopped working, so I’m waiting for a plan of this site to arrive, so I can assign grid references to each of the hut circles.

Walking to the top hut circle, looking down towards the viewpoint just off the B3212 Princetown Road at SX 69834 83454, it was possible to get a photo of the hut circles all in a line down the hill. Whilst we saw many people head off northwards across the moor, there was no-one else on or near this site at all.

We must have spent a good hour photographing the hut circles and looking at the medieval banks and ditches, some of which cut the hut circles.

Leeper Cross

Trip No.130  Entry No.2  Date Added: 24th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Leeper/Leapra Wayside Cross: We had problems locating this cross, so I ended up walking up the driveway up to Moorgate Farm. Just to the right hand side of the gate, I thought I identified an ivy covered cross head shape. Andrew didn’t believe me, so I let myself through the gate and had a closer look. Now I wasn’t convinced.

I heard voices through the hedge, so went in search of the voices, and ended up speaking to a young man who lived in the cottage. He said he knew where the cross was, and took us to the corner of the wall where my ivy covered shape was. This was indeed the Leeper Cross.

He told me that the cross had been moved from where it had been found at Moorgate Farm to Bovey Castle (“which isn’t a castle”), but there had been dissention so it had been moved back to this spot. His family had tried to get the cross located back to its original spot (at Moorgate Farm?) but “there doesn’t seem to be an appetite for it”.

He was happy to leave me to photograph the very ivy covered cross whilst he went back to erecting his new greenhouse.

North Bovey

Trip No.129  Entry No.5  Date Added: 23rd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: North Bovey Wayside Cross: We’d booked into the local hostelry, The Ring O Bells, for supper, but arrived a little early. As well as seeing the cross on the village green, we wanted to see the local church, St John The Baptist. However, the church (given the time of the evening!) was firmly locked.

I was somewhat dismayed to find how close all the cars parked to the cross on the village green, but then there is so little parking in the village with narrow lanes and a small public car park, that I guess this is the easiest option for residents and visitors alike.

The different socket stone and shaft are clear, as is in the inserted piece of granite at the base of the shaft, inserted after the cross was knocked down by a vehicle in 1951 to help it fit the base better.

I almost had to sit on the bonnet of the car next to the cross to get a decent photo of the ‘front’ of the grass, facing back across the village green. On the green there is also a village pump, which attracted the numerous children playing on the green.

Hele Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.4  Date Added: 23rd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Hele Cross, Devon: This cross is not far from the Beetor Cross – some 850m to the east, measured from UK Grid Reference Finder. The lane was narrow and a little windy, but a good introduction to the driving around this part of the world. There were few places to park, so we bumped up on the verge next to the farm, at about SX 72084 84153, where they had already parked one of their vehicles.

This area was heavily shaded by trees, with a (narrower) lane running east from the cross (eventually joining up with Yard Hill), and to the south a drop down to a stream.

The cross was again raised up above the road and was clearly visible once we’d walked onto the road junction. A tractor track up to a field gate allowed us to walk up ‘behind’ the cross and take photos. The socket stone was completely covered in ivy and brambles, so we didn’t really see this at all. (Later research using Crossing's Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor (1902) says the chapel was by the stream).

Watching Place Waymarker

Trip No.130  Entry No.1  Date Added: 22nd May 2019
Site Type: Marker Stone Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 11th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Watching Place Waymarker/original site of Beetor Cross: Having seen the OS map and sorted out the Pastscape entries, I finally realised that this 'standing stone' was where the cross had originally been located.

Our first stop today was to go and photograph it so I could complete the Beetor Cross entry. It was nice to understand the relationship between the waymarker stone and the wayside cross, although it too me a while to understand the confusion between the names (HE calls the waymarker the Beetor Cross and the cross the Watching Place Cross).

I had to be careful photographing the front of the cross as cars sped quickly at irregular intervals.

Beetor Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.3  Date Added: 22nd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Beetor Wayside Cross, North Bovey: Our first trip out on the evening we arrived in Devon and having unpacked our things at the barn. This cross was less than a mile from the barn we were staying in.

I was really confused when I read the entries for this cross at first, not realising that it had been moved from its original spot just round the corner, opposite a crossroads. That original spot is now marked by a boundary marker.

This cross is very overgrown with ivy. It is in part of a private garden, used as part playground, part rubbish dump, but with no-one around, we opened the gate to see if there was a better view of the cross from the side opposite the road, but in fact because the cross was at the top of the bank and there was so much shrubbery around it, the view was worse.

Having worked out the original location of the cross and the significance of the nearby boundary marker, we made the boundary marker our first stop the next morning.

Cockleroy Hill (Beecraigs)

Trip No.49  Entry No.3  Date Added: 22nd May 2019
Site Type: Hillfort Country: Scotland (West Lothian)
Visited: Yes on 22nd Sep 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Cockleroy Hillfort, Beecraigs Country Park: From Lower Craigmailing Socketed Stone, we drove north past the Korean War Memorial to Beescraig Country Park. There was a small car park at about NS 99445 74270, where a path led through the forest, leading to a gate into the field containing the hillfort.

According to the Scotsman of 9th December 2012, Cocklroy means “the hat of the kings”. Situated in Beecraigs Country Park forest, there is a climb of 278 metres to the top and a mown path goes straight up the hill to the top of the fort, where there is a viewpoint. I wasn’t feeling too good, so opted out half way up the climb. Andrew continued up to the trig point at the top, and had great views across Lochcote Reservoir to the south west and the Forth Bridges at Queensferry to the north east.

Andrew said there wasn’t much to see of the fort itself – there were very little signs on the ground. I sat on the large stones about half way up the slope, at first thinking they were defensive ditches and banks, but were in fact modern quarries, when I looked closer!

Holy Trinity (Rolleston)

Trip No.129  Entry No.2  Date Added: 21st May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Nottinghamshire)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cross Shaft Fragments and Cross Slabs, Holy Trinity, Rolleston: By the time we’d photographed the sundial in the churchyard then walked up to the village cross, the church had been opened (thankfully) and we let ourselves in. The cross shaft was immediately opposite the south door into the church, although in a really difficult position to photograph (between a heavy wooden desk with information leaflets and a fire extinguisher). The most ornate section of the cross was to its western side, so after Andrew had moved the chairs, I virtually had to squeeze myself in next to the desk and squat down as best I could to capture the carvings – not the most elegant of positions!

It wasn’t until after I had photographed the cross and was making my way towards the fragments in the eastern wall of the northern aisle that I realised the chairs in the church had been set up in a labyrinth pattern. We did have to move some of the chairs to access several parts of the church, but made sure we put the chairs back exactly where we found them.

Thank goodness I had my printouts with Peter Ryder’s drawings and descriptions, as we would have missed a lot here! We’d spotted one or two of the most obvious carved stones built into the external fabric. However, now knowing how much was on the external walls, we went round the outside again and spotted so much more.

Rolleston Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.1  Date Added: 21st May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Nottinghamshire)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Rolleston Cross: This was our first stop on our way down to Dartmoor. Having stopped off in Newark for a very early breakfast, we arrived in Rolleston at 08:30, only to find (not surprisingly!) that the church had not yet been opened. After having photographed the sun dial in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, we walked up to find this old village cross, which I completely missed the first time round, as it blended in with the surrounding pavement and benches!

The very sad remains of an old village cross, but another site to have ticked off the list. By the time we'd photographed this cross stump, we walked back to Holy Trinity to find it now open.

The Hanging Stone (Haydon)

Trip No.128  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Hanging Stone, south of Haydon Bridge: We tried to find the Treacle Well (Traking Well) in Slaley, but despite an old footpath opposite the church being shown on the OS map, we couldn’t find our way through the houses to see it, so headed off through Hexham and off west on the B6305 to find The Hanging Stone.

This is marked on the OS map; Andrew found it on the 1860 map of the area, so it has been there a long time. There are no references to it on HE (although it is marked on their map), and only the briefest of mentions on Pastscape.

This stone wasn’t what I was expecting. I half thought that we’d see a flat stone marking the site of a gallows, not a standing stone! But it is very definitely a standing stone, and one that seems to have been here for some considerable time.

The road was very busy and the cars very fast. We did manage to bump up onto the soft verge, but for safety should have pulled up on the driveway up to the farm. The entrance to the field is at NY 88081 61695. After photographing the stone over the stone wall, I didn’t fancy trekking all the way up to the farm house in the distance, so took a chance and let myself into the field.

The stone is located in a dip, below current ground level, and has stones packed around its base. To its north east a rounded channel runs off to join a stream or modern field drain, as if the stone marked the start of a spring at some point.

St George's Well (Minsteracres)

Trip No.128  Entry No.1  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St George's Well, Minsteracres: Minsteracres had an open day today between 11am and 4pm, so we decided to drive up and see if we could find the well. I understood that it was located near to the chapel, but this was mistaken, as we found out on arrival.

Driving up the private road from the A68, we parked just past the cattle grid about 200m away from the main buildings, parked on the grass alongside the vegetable garden to our north, and walked back to The Shrubbery, a woodland with specimen and ornamental trees and two signposted walks.

With only a rough grid reference to guide us, but with the OS map in hand, it quickly became apparent that the well wasn’t in The Shrubbery, so we made our way back to the road and walked a little back towards the A68, heading north-north-east. In a small wood to our right hand side, the well became quickly apparent. I quickly recorded the waypoint on our GPS.

Whilst there was water in the pool, there was no water bubbling into the well pool. The well had a fairly large ditch running from it, so there appears to still be a fair flow of water from it at certain times.

Someone had recently been clearing away weeds and shrubs from the area. Scrapping away some of the leaves at the base of the steps into the well basin, water quickly flowed in to fill up the space where the leaves had been, although there was no evidence of flow.

Mossknowe 2

Trip No.127  Entry No.3  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn: the cairn nearest to the bend in the road, south east of the cottage which has Mossknowe Tumulus in its garden. Nothing special, but another site ticked off the list.

Mossknowe Tumulus

Trip No.127  Entry No.6  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn 1/ Belten Mound: We stopped outside the cottage to the west of the minor road at NY 27846 69513, but could not see much. Carrying on to where the road bends at NY 28117 69281, the only gate into the field from the road here is at NY 28067 69222 and hadn't been opened in such a long time, the hawthorn hedge had grown round the edges. With the rain starting to pelt down, and with evening rapidly falling, we decided to cut our loses, quickly photograph the cairns from a distance and go home.