| Parish/District | Dunsby/South Kesteven |
| Location | On the roadside at the junction of Main Road and Dunsby Drove. Socket stone still present but now buried beneath paving slabs |
| Category | Village cross (now a lost cross) |
| National Grid Ref | TF 10587 26864 |
| Designation | de-listed (2010) / Scheduled |
| Stone type | Limestone |
| Refs | AP Survey 6 Dec 1993; Davies, D S, 1913, Lincs N & Q, Vol XII No.5 January 1913 pp129-150 Link to archaeological report here Report in Lincs HER here |
| Visits | AP: 6 Dec 1993 | DS/HH: 5 Dec 2011 |
Dunsby village cross is a sad tale of loss. The cross was presumably once on a green adjacent to All Saints church but by the 19th century, housing and road development had confined it to a narrow verge at a road junction – it was already nearly buried when surveyed for scheduling in 1993. Its position made it prone to vehicular damage and the surviving shaft fragment was eventually fractured and was taken to the church porch for safe keeping. The final indignity, in the late 1990s, was when the whole area was tarmacked over and the cross base finally lost to sight. English Heritage commissioned an archaeological excavation of the cross base in 2003 with the intention of moving it to a safer and more visible position, but the socket stone was found to be too large to be lifted and repositioned and so it was reburied and its position marked with paving slabs and a plaque. The plaque reads:
These paving slabs mark the site of Dunsby village cross. A medieval standing cross. A place for preaching, public proclamations and penance. The focal point of the village for many centuries.
When surveyed, the socket-stone was approximately 0.86m square in section and stood up to 0.15m above the present sloping ground surface. The greater part of the stone was buried beneath the modern paving to a depth of at least 0.2m. The upper edge is slightly chamfered, and the corners are moulded and chamfered to form a top of octagonal section. Into the socket-stone is set the shaft fragment, of plain square section within the socket rising through chamfered corners in octagonal section to a height of 0.17m.
When excavated, the cross base was found to consist of a single limestone block 0.9m by 0.9m by 0.3m deep. Its sides were worked to a smooth surface, but the upper face was less regular due to weathering and damage. A recessed socket, 0.35m square, in the centre of the upper face had formerly held the cross shaft. The recess contained lead sheeting, used as a fixative for the cross shaft and is possibly medieval in origin.
Following the excavation, an artist’s reconstruction of the cross base and shaft fragment was produced.
