St Mary and St Hardulf (Breedon on the Hill)

Trip No.120  Entry No.1  Date Added: 20th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 15th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: St Mary & St Hardulph, Breedon on the Hill: This church is visible from miles around, perched on top of its hill, which used to be an Iron Age hillfort (The Bulwarks). Most of the fortifications have been quarried away, and at the eastern side of the church there is a steep drop down into a large quarry, protected by a substantial metal fence and barbed wire. This is also the site of a beacon.

We arrived on a day when there was a weather warning for high winds, and my goodness, the winds were high. Other walkers were sitting in their cars in the small car park at the viewpoint, whilst we struggled to open the car doors and braved the winds to walk up to the south porch to let ourselves into the church! I am glad I had my husband with me, as the wind made the outer porch door rattle badly and it sounded as if a group of people were standing just outside the door having a muffled conversation. Very spooky, although the atmosphere in the church was friendly and welcoming, and I could have spent several more hours here.

There is a church guide with a plan of the stones, but not all of them are included individually. I went armed with a copy of A W Clapham's paper "The Carved Stones at Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, and their position in the History of English Art". I had problems linking his descriptions with the actual stones, so ended up making my own drawing and labelling the stones and photo numbers, so it was easier to 'unpick' once I was at home.

I could have spent at least several more hours here, but time was pressing, and I left reluctantly, to brave the wind yet again!

Asfordby Cross

Trip No.121  Entry No.2  Date Added: 19th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Asfordby Village Cross: Not really much to see, as the cross shaft is obviously modern, on an older base, but as this was just round the corner from All Saints, we whizzed round to take a very quick look.

Bottesford Cross

Trip No.121  Entry No.6  Date Added: 19th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Market Cross, Bottesford: We saw this purely by chance as we turned down the road heading north towards the A1 and home, and stopped to take photographs. The village stocks and whipping post were right next to the cross, which was placed on top of five steps, the top two of which are modern repairs.

St Bartholomew (Sproxton)

Trip No.121  Entry No.3  Date Added: 19th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Sproxton Cross, St Bartholomew's Church: This church was a little way out of the village and we parked in a small metalled area next to a 'gallop' at SK 85667 24972 and braved the wind to walk back down the road to the gate into the churchyard.

The vicar had previously told us the cross had been moved inside the church, but looking after 11 churches in total, he must have been confused, because as soon as we rounded the west end of the church to reach the entrance through the south porch, the cross came into sight. What is inside the church is an 11th century cross slab/grave marker.

This is a very quiet spot, apart from the occasional car that came hurtling past.
The inside of the church appears relatively modern, but has some really interesting corbels. We also found a portion of carving, either part of a fluted column, or cemented to it, next to the north western side of the door into the tower.

We did have a good scout around for the shaped stone in the south western wall mentioned by The Journal of Antiquities, but were unable to find it.

In the field to the south of the church is a well, but could find no mention of this on Pastscape or Historic England.

All Saints (Asfordby)

Trip No.121  Entry No.1  Date Added: 24th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: All Saints, Asfordby: The church is usually open on Saturdays between 2pm and 4pm, but we were fortunate because there was a service here today, from 10.30am until 11.30am, so we arrived as close as we could to the finish time of the service (which, because we got lost, was 12 noon). The congregation was having coffee and biscuits, but made us hugely welcome – even our son and DIL’s Labrador was allowed into the church and made a fuss of. The vicar had very kindly made arrangements for us to meet the Secretary and Historian of the church, who warmly welcomed us, introduced us to the Curate, and showed us round the church.

All Saints is very obviously a vibrant, active church, and the building is well used for community activities, which is lovely to see.

Miriam, the historian, very kindly showed us the three Anglo Saxon stones cemented into the far south western corner of the nave, with members of the congregation very kindly re-arranging tables and chairs for us to have easier access.

I came prepared with a list of features I really wanted to see, including the rare Tudor painted bench end (next to a pillar just to the east at the north western corner of the nave), the Green Man (on a boss high up in the middle of the nave) and Norman aumbry (in the northern wall at the north eastern corner of the nave) with its original Norman chevrons. Miriam also pointed out a ‘ladder’ (stairway to heaven) on the pillar at the north eastern side of the nave, and pilgrim crosses and what looked like a scratch sundial on the external western side of the door frame into the church.

I really could have spent a lot longer in the church, as it had a lovely, calm, reflective atmosphere and would love to attend a service here.

St Michael and All Angels (Harston)

Trip No.121  Entry No.4  Date Added: 19th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Anglo Saxon cross fragments, St Michael and All Angels, Harston: Before visiting, I wasn’t able to find out much about the church or the AS stone fragments. I was hoping for a church guide book, but there was nothing. There were newspaper articles and photos of the bell tower and the bells displayed in the bell tower, but nothing was made of the fragments – one in the external east wall, and another in the south porch. Pastscape mentions that the stone in the east wall is possibly part of a cross shaft

The church looks very appealing from the outside, being made of warm, yellow stone. Inside it is very Victorian. The only thing of any age appeared to be the stem of the font.

Nice to have been able to drop by and photograph the fragments.

St Peter's Church (Redmile)

Trip No.121  Entry No.5  Date Added: 19th Mar 2019
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Carved Anglo Saxon Stone, St Peter's Church, Redmile: Our last planned visit before heading off home, and this church didn't disappoint, despite being greeted by "Warning. Falling Masonry" signs on entering the church through the south door! The north western part of the nave was cordoned off, with similar notices.

No two walls of this church were plumb, and the cracking in the north wall was quite spectacular. However, the atmosphere of the church was warm and friendly, and we felt relatively safe knowing there had been a service there only that morning.

We found the stone, reused as a windowsill, easily enough. Placed under a window by the pulpit, it proved a little tricky to photograph, and I could have done with a ladder to photograph all of it from above.

I also spotted what could have been what looked like another fragment in the south wall of the church, and Andrew found 'witches marks' on the eastern external jamb of the south porch.

Rothley Cross

Date Added: 20th Mar 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 17th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Rothley Cross, Leicestershire: The church is usually kept locked, but we had arranged to pick up a key from the Parish Office mid-afternoon. However, calling at the office, there was no reply. Walking back to the church, I spoke to a lady who had been busy clearing the churchyard of broken branches, and she told us the administrator had gone home ill. However, fortuitously, she had a key to the vestry and very kindly let us in.

The church has a long history, and has some amazing grave slabs and a Norman font. The bases of the pillars are said to date to the original Norman church. We found a cross scratched into one of the pillars.

The Rothley Cross is to be found to the south east of the church, near some tall yew trees. At the time of our visit, the cross was in deep shade, although the worn carving was still visible.

We also spotted an unsual carved mark - much more ornate than a mason's mark on the external western jamb of the vestry door.

Three Kings

Trip No.122  Entry No.1  Date Added: 30th Mar 2019
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 28th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Three Kings Stone Circle, Byrness: Driving up the A68 from Corbridge, passing through Rochester, we turned left off the A68 at NT 78013 01533 into the Border Forest Caravan Park. We thought we’d get to a car park where we could leave the park, but instead ended up at a Reception hut with a barrier closing off the road. There was no one in the hut, so I rang the buzzer. Rather than explain what I wanted, a man’s voice came through the speaker “I’ll be with you in a moment”, and rang off. Seconds later a man on a bike appeared. I asked him if there was anywhere we could park to go and see the Three Kings, and he said “as we’d asked, we could park here” (by the hut), and he gave very precise directions for reaching the stone circle. He also told us that the Forestry Commission hadn’t been maintaining the track to the stone circle very well, and some of it was very overgrown.

Stopping to almost scratch the pet pig’s nose (he was called Bubbles (sadly not more 'Squeak')), we set off south west through the static caravan area, crossing over the metal bridge, then turned north west along part of the Pennine Way, walking over a wider bridge where two rivers meet, then turned almost due west along a forest track, which turned a corner southwards and climbed steadily uphill.

We missed the first track up to the stone circle, as it really was very overgrown, but continued up the hill and came to reasonably well defined track, over a boggy area, then uphill along a moss covered track which eventually came to some wooden steps, which even had a handrail in parts. From the comparative dark of the forest, we came out into a sunlit clearing with the four poster to our right hand side.

Bremenium Roman tumulus

Trip No.122  Entry No.2  Date Added: 30th Mar 2019
Site Type: Artificial Mound Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 28th Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Petty Knowes Roman Cemetery/Bremenium Roman Tumulus: We walked too far north along the track, past Lamb Crags, and had to double back. We should have turned immediately right through the gate at NY 83788 98236. However, being on top of the crags gave us a good viewpoint down to the tomb below, although the sun was by now directly in the camera lens.

As I was walking round the one remaining, circular tomb, the farmer came speeding up on this quad bike and came to a halt by the fence. At first, I thought we were trespassing, and asked him, but he said “no, you’re alright”. His farmhand had told him 8 people had walked up to have a look, so he’d come up to see us. “No, there’s only the two of us”, Andrew replied.

The farmer very kindly walked us round the base of the tomb and pointed out three carvings on the bottom (visible) layer – two diamonds and a bull. He showed us another layer which is now buried under the earth, but the top of its lip can be felt underfoot.

He also pointed out the 51 Roman graves by the quarry (“head for the beech tree”); he also told us about some interesting stones near the footbridge, and that the small extension at the old School House (next to the war memorial) was partly built out of Roman stones. He said he himself had moved some stones into his own garden.

Crailing Cross

Trip No.123  Entry No.2  Date Added: 2nd Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 31st Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Crailing Cross: We’d driven by this cross a couple of times before, but just thought it was a stone bearing the name of the village. This time, I got a closer look, then looked it up on Canmore after we drove past and confirmed it was a medieval ‘mercat’ cross. We stopped on our way back from Kelso to take a few photos. Nothing special, but another to tick off as a visited site.

I was aiming to take a photograph of the cross from the south side of the A698, but the traffic was so fast and frequent, I decided not to risk getting run over.

Crosshall Cross

Trip No.123  Entry No.1  Date Added: 2nd Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 31st Mar 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Crosshall Cross: Details of this cross had printed out along with some details of Kelso Abbey, which we visited beforehand. Having found it was not far from Kelso, we decided to take the short drive to see it, and it was well worth it.

This was a little further out of Kelso than we originally thought, but it was a pleasant drive. Whilst the cross was 'protected' by an old iron railing, with the remains of an old signpost next to it, the fence was a taut wire/barbed wire fence with no 'give' to squeeze through, so we walked down the lane, away from the farm to the gate into the field. The ‘gate’ into the field with the cross was right at the cross roads, so we climbed over and walked back down the field of pasture to take a closer look.

The low, very bright, sun, made it difficult to photograph its eastern side with its man and its hound (we thought it was a lamb), but it was well worth seeing this cross, with its Latin crosses, shields, incised man with his hound, and a Crusader sword.

Chapman's Stone

Trip No.124  Entry No.2  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Chapman's Stone: Our second stop of the day, and easy to stop alongside the road where it widens slightly, at NY 10746 99049 and walked back the short way to the stone. The stone has a fence built right over the middle of it (it looks like it could be used as a stile). It’s eastern side looks as if it has been knocked and broken by farm equipment. Looking at where the stone is placed in the landscape, it is along an old drover’s road, with the River Annan to its western side; to the NE, there are two flat topped hills in the distance.

Poldean menhir

Trip No.124  Entry No.3  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Poldean Standing Stone: The third stop of the day with this stone easily visible just to the west of the road, towards the eastern edge of a large field of pasture.

We let ourselves in through the gate NY 10424 99981, walking over a small stream, again with the River Annan to its west and the busy A754(M) in the distance.

The eastern side of the stone is very craggy, as if bedding planes have been worn/broken away. There appears to have been a cup low down on its western side, but this could be a solution hole, if the stone had been lying flat for some considerable time in the past.

Skip Knowe

Trip No.124  Entry No.1  Date Added: 4th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Skip Knowe Standing Stone: Our first stop of the day, which nearly wasn’t, as we got caught in a SSE convoy putting up new poles and wires. We stopped by what looked like a community hall and I asked permission to park there for 10 minutes whilst we walked back 100m to look at the standing stone. We were told that was OK, but we needed to move within half an hour otherwise they would be stringing a cable over our car. No sooner had we spoken to one helpful worker, than another appeared and we went through the same exercise!

We were quickly able to walk back to the stone, hop over the fence into the field, take a few photos and back to the car just as a new pole was being craned into position in front of the neighbouring house.

This is a huge standing stone, just opposite Skip Cottage, with the River Annan just to the west. There were no discernible features on the stone that we could see, and we had a good look around. There were a couple of large boulders in the bank just to the west of the stone, but these looked like just part of the bank, but the Canmore entry from 1906 mentions a possible second stone.

St Cuthbert's Church (Wamphray)

Trip No.124  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Anglo Scandinavian Cross Slab, St Cuthbert's Church, Wamphray: This seemed far too modern a church to incorporate any old stones, but I was to be surprised. The churchyard was quite spectacular, with a large walled mausoleum and two very large monuments, one being a replica of a churchyard cross.

We found the stone over the west door of the church. It was an interesting exercise to photograph this, as the ground sloped down very steeply to the river. The stone was carved on its wide face, and also some interlacing on its underside, next to the door.

Sadly, the church was very firmly padlocked and doors locked, so we were unable to get to see the reverse side of the slab. There was a modern, recreation of a churchyard cross at the south side of the church, near the gate into the churchyard.

Wamphray Place

Trip No.124  Entry No.5  Date Added: 11th Apr 2019
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Wamphray Place Motte & Bailey: Continuing down the hill (north west) from Wamphray Church, past the mill and over the narrow bridge, as we climbed the hill at the other side of the river, we spotted this small, compact motte and bailey and stopped to take a few quick photos. Wish we’d had more time to explore and photograph this site from the river, but we wanted to try and find the cairn cemetery at Pumplaburn before heading off to meet our daughter at Annandale Water services.

Pumplaburn

Trip No.124  Entry No.6  Date Added: 11th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Pumplaburn Cairns: Making our way back towards Annandale Water, we went under the smallest railway bridge we’d ever travelled under – 7ft tall and 7ft wide! We didn’t find these cairns, despite wandering up and down the road. Looks like they may have been buried by the large hardstanding for tractors next to Pumplaburn Steading. From plotting the ngrs on UK Grid Reference Finder, the cairn at NY 1191 9650 may still be there, but we only saw it from a distance.

Howden Hill Middle Cairn

Trip No.125  Entry No.5  Date Added: 26th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill Middle Cairn: From the rock art panels, it is only just over 150m to walk to this cairn, which is the most prominent of the two on this side of the ridge above Settlingstones Burn.

In a very lovely spot, the make up of the cairn from stones and earth becomes evident. It is around 9m in diameter and about 1m (perhaps slightly higher) above the surrounding ground level.

With its proximity to Hadrian’s Wall, the location of this cairn cemetery with its rock art, cists and cairns is intriguing. Sewingshields Crags is visible on the skyline to the south east.

Howden Hill 3

Trip No.125  Entry No.7  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill/Settlingstone Burn 3: Standing at the Howden Hill Rock Art Panels 1 and 2, two large stones and a large erratic were prominent on the skyline a couple of hundred metres to the east. They looked well worth investigating, so we followed the tractor trail up to the them. Wow. The location is lovely.

What a setting for the remains of this cairn, which sits high above Settlingstone Burn, at the top of a steep slope. The rock art panel within it is the most prominent of the stones within the cairn with its almost luminescent yellow/green lichen which served to highlight the cup marks. Whilst NADRAP/ERA says the cups may be caused by erosion, we thought they were pretty convincing, the outer cups being seemingly arranged in lines. If this was the original cist cover, it has been overturned at some time in the distant past.