There are two crosses at St Mary’s church in Weston: Weston (1) is a relocated and restored village cross, and Weston (2) is a wayside cross(?) relocated from Beggar’s Bush crossroads to St Mary’s church
Parish/District | Weston/South Holland |
Location | to the south west of the south porch of St Mary’s church |
Category | Village cross (restored as churchyard cross in 1897) |
National Grid Ref | TF 29229 25150 |
Designation | Scheduled / Listed II |
Stone Type | Limestone |
Refs | AP Survey 24 Mar 1994; Davies, D S, 1915, Lincs Notes and Queries, Vol XIII No.7, p. 223 |
Visits | AP: 24 Mar 1994 | DS/HH: 20 Dec 2005 |
The cross in Weston churchyard seems to have been relocated there from the village, for Nattes (c.1800) has a drawing of something very similar, labelled as: ‘Remains of the cross in a wall near the Inn at Weston’. The Inn is presumably the Chequers Inn (later, The Carter’s Arms) adjacent to the church. The church guide records that the cross was restored in1897 (modelled on the Somersby cross) as part of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations.
The restored cross comprises a plinth, a socket-stone, the shaft, knop and head. The upper section of the shaft and the cross-head are modern (19th C). The two lower (original) sections of shaft are connected by iron clamps – these are shown in Nattes’s drawing and are evidently from an earlier restoration event.
The plinth is a large rectangular stone slab, measuring 1.23m x 1.28m. It dates from the 19th C restoration of the cross. On it stands the medieval socket-stone, a limestone block approximately 0.69m square at the base and c.0.43m high. The corners of the socket-stone are moulded and chamfered into knobs, those on the south-east and south-west having been partly broken away. On the north and south faces of the socket-stone there is a deep vertical groove nearly 40mm deep and averaging 0.1m in width; that on the north reaches a height of 0.33m, and that on the south runs all the way to the top at 0.43m. These appear to have been made for fittings of some kind.
The shaft is about 0.29m square in section at the base with moulded and chamfered corners in the form of small broach stops tapering upwards in octagonal section. The two lower stones of the shaft, joined with mortar and iron clamps, are medieval in date while the upper stones date from the modern restoration. The upper part of the shaft is integral with the knop and head, which takes the form of a plain gabled cross similar to that at West Torrington. The full height of the cross is approximately 4m.