
Parish/District | North Witham/South Kesteven |
Location | In the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, approximately 5m south of the west tower. |
Category | Churchyard cross |
National Grid Ref | SK 92788 21864 |
Designation | Scheduled / Listed II |
Stone Type | Limestone |
Refs | AP Survey, 8 Dec 1993; Davies, D S, 1913, Lincs N & Q, Vol XII No.5, p.146 |
Visits | AP: 8 Dec 1993 | DS: 28 April 2015 |
This is Revd David Davies’s own church, so it is right and proper there is a churchyard cross here – in fact, there is a carved Saxon stone as well – now displayed in the porch – info on this from Everson & Stocker is HERE.
The churchyard cross is located c.5m south of the west tower and comprises a socket stone and a portion of shaft. It has been reset on two concrete slabs, raising questions as to whether it is in its original location.
The socket stone is c.0.73m square by 0.41m high and the upper 0.16m is cut to a circle or drum (0.73m diam), with the corners moulded. The top edge has a slight chamfer and there appears to be a faint rib carved around just below the chamfer. The socket is interesting – the original socket is clear from a surviving lead packing and is c.0.27m square but it has a smaller shaft set within it (tucked up to the NE corner) c.0.25 x 0.21m (see sketch below for orientation). One cannot help but wonder if Davies imported a spare shaft to grace a North Witham socket stone?
The shaft is slightly tapering in irregular octagonal section to a height of 1.08m. The top of the shaft is cut flat with many (c.9) fixings visible – three of these still have lead in them. These are probably from a sundial conversion, but it’s quite tall for a sundial.
Davies comments: ‘On the south side of the base there are two incised squares cut one within the other with lines through the centre forming a cross.’. This inscription was faintly visible when AP surveyed the cross in 1993, but I did not see it when I visited in 2015.
There were other carved stones displayed in the church porch, including a rather nice floreated stone cross head (see photo). Possibly too small to have come from a standing cross. But just the sort of thing you would expect to find in Davies’s church!



