Wrangle ‘cross’ is close by the south porch of the church and would be in the right position for a cross . . . or a sundial?
Parish/DistrictWrangle/Boston Borough
Locationsouth side of St. Mary and St. Nicholas church
CategoryChurchyard cross? (probably a sundial)
National Grid RefTF 42480 50818
DesignationListed II
Stone TypeLimestone
RefsDavies, D S, 1915, Lincolnshire Notes & Queries, Vol XIII No.8, p.227
VisitsDS/HH: 17 Nov 2005

The cross remains in the churchyard of St Mary and St Nicholas at Wrangle are a bit of an oddity – and may not even be the parts of a standing cross. They are located a few metres south of the south porch of the church and comprise a socket stone with a portion of shaft, having a bronze sundial set on the top. They are in the right place for a cross – and also in the right place for a sundial!

Davies (1915) comments that ‘the base is a fine block, but not old . . . Under it are some loose stones …’.  It remains poorly founded today, teetering and leaning on those same loose stones.

The socket stone is 0.82m x 0.84m by 0.38m high with a double chamfer. It has the date 1826 inscribed on its north face and a small hole in the south face. It does not look much like a medieval socket stone.

The fragment of shaft is carved with panels and is clearly part of something larger, as the pattern is cut where the stone sits in the socket. It looks old, but does not look anything like the cross shafts usually seen on Lincolnshire churchyard crosses. It is c.0.35m square and 0.91m tall.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, standing crosses with stumps of shaft were routinely repurposed for use as sundial mounts. However, at Wrangle, it may be that other suitable architectural fragments have been used and perhaps this was never a churchyard cross? Wrangle was once a small port and held a market charter for a Saturday market from 1205. Thus, another possibility is that this shaft is a surviving element of Wrangle’s market cross relocated to the churchyard.

Wrangle’s 1826 sundial set amidst gravestones near the south door – was it once part of the market cross?

Wrangle

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