Green Lane Cross

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1008925) describes Green Lane Cross, at the north-west end of Whitchurch Down. It is the complete arms and head of an old granite cross, cemented onto a modern granite shaft that is itself cemented into an old granite socket stone. The cross stands 3.7 metres from the edge of the tarmac road. The arms run roughly north-west to south-east, 0.64 metres across in all, and the head rises 0.3 metres above them, so the surviving head and arms are 0.57 metres high. A very weathered cross is cut into the south-west face between the arms, 0.2 metres wide by 0.16 metres high. One recorded on the north-east face in 1937 is doubtful. The modern shaft is crudely cut with drill marks on its south-east face, rectangular, 0.33 metres by 0.23 metres. The socket stone is split, its visible size 1.08 by 0.85 metres. The cross was restored in 1934, and the whole restored feature is 1.22 metres high.

It may be the 'old cross' named in a deed of 1310, and it is one of a line of crosses that marked a major medieval route east out of Tavistock across Dartmoor. The hollow way of an old track can be traced east from the cross on the north side of the modern road, and it may be the original medieval route.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1008925, which cites Harris (ed.), Whitchurch Down (1990), pages 11 to 12, and Masson Phillips, 'The Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon, Part 1' (Devonshire Association Transactions, vol 69, 1936 to 1937), page 316.

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1008925)
• Grid reference: SX 4929 7387 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)