Reasons for Designation
Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the
medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. In addition to
serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith
amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside
crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and
otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes
linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious
function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners
and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on
pilgrimages.
Over 350 wayside crosses are known nationally, concentrated in south-west
England throughout Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type
of stone cross. A small group also occurs on the North York Moors. Relatively
few examples have been recorded elsewhere and these are generally confined to
remote moorland locations.
Outside Cornwall almost all wayside crosses take the form of a 'latin' cross,
in which the cross-head itself is shaped with the projecting arms of an
unenclosed cross. In Cornwall wayside crosses vary considerably in form and
decoration. The commonest type includes a round, or 'wheel', head on the faces
of which various forms of cross or related designs were carved in relief or
incised, the spaces between the cross arms possibly pierced. The design was
sometimes supplemented with a relief figure of Christ and the shaft might bear
decorative panels and motifs. Less common forms in Cornwall include the
'Latin' cross and, much rarer, the simple slab with a low relief cross on both
faces. Rare examples of wheel-head and slab-form crosses also occur within the
North York Moors group. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed
base or show no evidence for a separate base at all.
Wayside crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval
religious customs and sculptural traditions and to our knowledge of medieval
routeways and settlement patterns. All wayside crosses which survive as earth-
fast monuments, except those which are extremely damaged and removed from
their original locations, are considered worthy of protection.
This wayside cross at Lockengate has survived substantially intact as a good
example of a wheel-headed cross despite the limited damage to two edges of its
head. Its present position is analogous to its known former location in
marking a junction on a church path in the same parish. It also occupies the
equivalent position on the modern regional route that it formerly occupied on
the direct medieval route, illustrating and emphasising the manner in which
road networks develop. Its known former position shows well a major function
of wayside crosses and shows clearly the longevity of many routes still in
use. The re-use of this cross as part of a wall, beside its junction, until
the 20th century illustrates the changing attitudes to religion that have
prevailed since the Reformation and the impact of those changes on the local
landscape.
Details
The monument includes a medieval wayside cross situated beside a road junction
at Lockengate in southern central Cornwall.
The wayside cross at Lockengate survives as an upright granite cross with a
round or 'wheel ' head, set in a groundfast granite base and measuring 1.5m in
overall height. The periphery of the formerly round head of the cross has been
truncated to give straight edges along part of its upper and western edges
such that the latter edge now extends the line of the shaft's western edge.
The head measures 0.4m east-west by 0.37m high and 0.27m thick. On each
principal face, the head bears a low relief equal-armed cross with expanded
limbs formed by four triangular sinkings. A narrow raised bead surrounds the
sunken triangles along the surviving original outer edges of the head. The
undecorated, rectangular-section shaft is 1.13m high from base to neck and
measures up to 0.35m wide and 0.31 thick. The shaft is set into a rectangular
base stone measuring 0.83m east-west by 0.5m north-south, its upper face flush
with the ground surface. The shaft is set into the southern half of this slab,
0.3m from the north edge but only 0.08m from its south edge.
This medieval wayside cross is set on a wide grass verge in Lockengate
village, at the junction of the modern major road from Bodmin to St Austell
with a minor road and former parish church path to Luxulyan to the south-east.
Until this century, this cross was situated 0.82km to the east in the same
parish, built into a wall beside a road junction near Trevellyn Farm, where it
was recorded in 1896 by the historian Langdon. His illustration of the cross
indicates that the truncation of the cross head's edges allowed it to conform
with the wall's coursing. It is considered that this cross is one of a number
of crosses removed during the Reformation (c.1540), often to be buried
alongside the junction they formerly marked. This former location of the cross
near Trevellyn Farm is analogous to its present position; it was situated
beside an early route running directly from Bodmin to St Austell, via Luxulyan
and marked by other medieval wayside crosses. Within Luxulyan parish this
route also formed a major route to the church.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
