Tetford churchyard cross – near the south door of St Mary’s church (Photo: Richard Croft)
Parish/DistrictTetford/East Lindsey
Locationc.4m to the south east of the south porch of St Mary’s church
CategoryChurchyard cross
National Grid RefTF 33400 74793
DesignationScheduled / Listed II
Stone TypeLimestone
RefsAP Survey 7 Nov 1994; Davies, D S, 1915, Lincs N & Q, Vol XIII No.6,  p.220
VisitsAP: 7 Nov 1994 | DS/HH: 21 May 2010

There is a standing cross 4m south of the door to St Mary’s church Tetford. It comprises a socket stone and a fragment of shaft. The socket stone has armorial shields deeply carved on its north and west faces.

The socket stone is now partly buried and stands about 0.25m above the present ground surface. It is c.0.83m square with moulded and chamfered corners rising to a top of octagonal section which is slightly chamfered along the upper edge. The west and north sides of the socket stone are carved in deep relief, each with a decorated shield set in a quatrefoil.

The fragment of shaft, which is set into the socket stone with lead, is rectangular in section at the base (0.33m E-W by 0.28m N-S) and rises above moulded and chamfered corners in tapering octagonal section to a height of 1.07m. The top of the shaft has been cut flat and has a single fixing of iron set in lead.

Davies describes the inscribed shields thus: ‘one bears three bars in pale, four mullets bendwise, and the other is the same bearing, impaling a cinque foil between six crosses plain.’ It is thought these are the arms of the Thimbleby family (c.1423), who owned lands in Tetford in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Details of the arms on the Tetford socket stone – West face (left) and north face (below)

Tetford churchyard cross
Tetford

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