| Parish/District | Long Bennington/South Kesteven |
| Location | c. 6m south east of the south porch of St Swithun’s church |
| Category | Churchyard cross |
| National Grid Ref | SK 84355 43866 |
| Designation | Scheduled / Listed |
| Stone Type | Limestone |
| Refs | AP Survey, 3 December 1993; Davies, D S, 1913, Lincs N & Q, Vol XII No.5, p.143 |
| Visits | AP: 3 Dec 1993 | DS/HH:10 March 2006 |
A socket stone with a piece of repaired shaft, 6m south of the porch in the churchyard of St Swithun’s at Long Bennington.
The socket-stone is partly buried and partly broken away. The original upper surface of the stone covered an area roughly 0.65m square; the eastern side is now rectangular in section, the western rounded. The south western corner now stands up to 0.08m above the ground surface, the rest being buried.
The shaft is of simple, 0.19m square section within the socket- stone, but rectangular above the socket (0.28 x 0.22m) rising through chamfered corners to an octagonal section. It is not tapered, and is formed of two stones fixed together with iron clamps dating from the late 19th/early 20th century. The upper stone widens out at the top into a plain rectangular knop; in the centre is a small hole containing an iron pin. The full height of the shaft is 1.47m.
Cox (p.61) mentions a mutilated market cross here – Long Bennington held a market charter (granted 1255) but there are no known remains of of a market cross surviving, and this churchyard cross is an unlikely candidate.
