Crosses
Roman's Cross near the church
A medieval stone cross standing west of the church, a scheduled monument marking centuries of Dartmoor worship and travel.
Crosses
Dartmoor has more stone crosses than most people expect. Harrison counted 132 within the National Park boundary, and Wikipedia's article on the subject repeats that figure. They were put up over a long stretch of time, the earliest probably almost 1,000 years ago and some as recently as 100 years ago. The moor has no tidy count: the Dartmoor Crosses site started out in 2000 aiming to document 150, posted its 200th page in May 2021, and says new discoveries are still occasionally made.
They were not all put up for the same reason. William Crossing, in his 1902 book, wrote that on the open moor crosses were set up either to mark a boundary or as guides to the wayfarer, while market crosses and churchyard crosses belong to the villages around it. Often it is both, and sometimes nobody can say which came first. Crossing could not decide whether Bennett's Cross was meant to mark a boundary or the path, and thought it probably did both.
A few of the best known, each with its own listing:
- Siward's or Nun's Cross: the oldest recorded, named in the 1240 perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor as Crucem Sywardi. It stands about 2.07 metres high and is inscribed "Syward" on one face and "BocLonD" (Buckland) on the other.
- Bennett's Cross: named in a deposition of 1702, with "WB" cut on it for Warren Bounds, the edge of Headland Warren. Nobody knows who Bennett was.
- Hobajon's Cross: a boundary mark for the manor of Ermington. Crossing found a mutilated cross head on Three Barrows, and the name still attached to a heap of stones near the hill top. How the head came to be damaged, he wrote, is impossible to say.
Many listings below carry Historic England list entry numbers, so some are named by distance from a landmark rather than by a local name.
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Crosses
Sanduck Cross
Barnecourt, Moretonhampstead
A wayside cross standing beside a minor road near Sanduck Farm on the northern moor.
Crosses
Shaugh Prior village cross
A wayside cross standing at the road junction near Shaugh Prior church, likely medieval in origin.
Crosses
Sheepstor Cross
A weathered granite cross standing alone on the open moor, marking centuries of Dartmoor's history and serving travellers across the high plateau.
Crosses
Shorter Cross
A medieval wayside cross standing beside a minor road north west of Middlecott, likely marking an old route across the moor.
Crosses
Siward's or Nun's Cross
A medieval stone cross standing on the open moor, possibly associated with a nearby nunnery or religious site.
Crosses
Sourton Down Cross near Aliceford Farm
A stone cross standing on Sourton Down, likely medieval in origin, marking a route or boundary on the open moor.
Crosses
St Gudula's Cross
Dolbeare, Ashburton
A medieval wayside cross on Dartmoor, likely marking a route or parish boundary in the open moorland.
Crosses
Stone cross on Ter Hill
A stone cross standing on Ter Hill, a scheduled monument likely dating to the medieval period.
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