Summary
A cross-head, of medieval origin, set on a C20 shaft.
Reasons for Designation
The Cross circa 35m south of The Old Rectory, the head of a medieval cross set on a C20 granite shaft, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as a medieval cross head, unusually inscribed with Latin crosses;
* Group value: with the listed Old Rectory, in whose gardens it forms a feature, and the wayside cross in the adjacent meadow (both listed at Grade II); and with the Church of St Gomonda (listed Grade II*).
History
The head of this cross, also known as the Trerank Cross, was discovered in 1902 by a Mr Dempster, built into a Cornish hedge on Trerank Lane in Roche, which leads south-westwards from the Church of St Gomonda to Trerank Farm. The church (listed Grade II*) dates back to the C13, and by the time that a new incumbent, The Rev Thomas Fisher was appointed as rector of Roche in 1819, it was in a poor state of repair. The living had been bought by an evangelical society in London in 1754, and ‘Parson Fisher’, as he was known, found the church not only in need of extensive repairs, but too ornamented for his low-church tastes, and set about making major alterations. It has been suggested that the cross-head might have originated as a finial on the church, and therefore might have been removed during Parson Fisher’s remodelling; but its size indicates that was more likely originally part of a freestanding cross, and the Historic Environment Record entry records that there are indications in the 1840 tithe award of field names which accord with this being the site of a medieval cross.
The cross head remained at Trerank Farm until 1921, when Rev E A Lowe, rector of the Church of St Gomonda, removed it for safekeeping, and placed it in the grounds of The Old Rectory, where Parson Fisher had, in c1819-22, created a designed landscape. This included gardens, pleasure grounds and an avenue, all set within the glebe land between the rectory and the church, and already included another standing cross, a wheel-headed wayside cross. The Trerank Cross was set on a new granite shaft with a stone basin at its foot, in a shady spot within the pleasure gardens, sharing a line of sight with the existing, in-situ wayside cross, which stood beyond the ha-ha within the park paddock.
Details
A cross-head, of medieval origin, set on a C20 shaft.
MATERIALS
Stone cross head; granite shaft.
DESCRIPTION
The structure is about 1.2m high; there is an irregularly-shaped, roughly-hewn shaft of early C20 date, with the head of a Latin cross fixed to the top, with chamfered angles and plain back. The cross head includes the upper and horizontal limbs of a Latin cross, including a fragment of the shaft. The front of the cross head displays a second Latin cross in carved relief and the reverse face is plain. There is a stone basin set in front of the cross.
