Lost Cross at Aisthorpe
There are also fragments of a carved Anglo Saxon grave cover built into the wall of the first floor chamber of the tower at Aisthorpe. They are reported in the Corpus HERE
| Parish/District | Aisthorpe/West Lindsey |
| Location | Aisthorpe churchyard (Lost Cross) |
| Category | Churchyard cross / Lost Cross |
| National Grid Ref | c. SK 94638016 |
| Designation | None |
| Stone Type | N/A |
| Refs | Sympson, E. M., (ed.) 1919, Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, Vol 15, p. 115. The Lincolnshire HER has a record for this cross base |
| Visits | DS/DAS: 14 Feb 2015 |
In 1866 the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society described the old church at Aisthorpe as ‘miserable in character’, prompting Revd Robert William Otter (the Rector of Aisthorpe 1850-1875) to commission and pay for a new St. Peter’s church. The church was rebuilt by architect Thomas Chambers Hine of Nottingham in a neo-Early English style and completed by 1868.
St. Peter’s church was listed grade II in November 1966 but has been closed for many years due to access and structural safety issues.
In Lincolnshire Notes and Queries (vol 15, p. 115) it is recorded: ‘…we have recently discovered at Aisthorpe the base of a churchyard cross. It is apparently of Lincoln Oolite and measures 33 x 33 inches and varying from eight to nine inches in depth. The socket, in which the shaft was formerly inserted, is in good preservation … It has been raised so that it may be seen but in other respects it has been carefully replaced in the same position as when found.’
Aisthorpe cross is also recorded in the Lincolnshire Historic Environment Record, which notes that it: ‘was raised from where it was sunk in the earth … and replaced in the same position. The top face of the 1m square base, with a large socket, was visible in 1964 almost flush with the ground … It was in very poor condition, chipped, flaking and overgrown’.
Despite much searching in the wildly overgrown churchyard, no sign of this socket stone can now be found – perhaps they should have raised it a little higher!
