Hospit Cross

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1009193) describes the head, arms and upper shaft of an very large medieval wayside cross of moderately coarse granite, known variously as Hospit Cross, Stumpy Cross and Horspit Cross. It is listed Grade II and stands on the verge of the crossroads known as Bovey Cross, on the north side of the road towards Bughead Cross. The surviving cross is 1.04 metres high. The shaft is neatly rectangular, 0.42 by 0.25 metres. The arms run nearly north-east to south-west and are very stumpy but probably original, 0.59 metres across, the south-west arm projecting only 0.1 metres and the north-east arm 0.09 metres. The head rises up to 0.185 metres above them. Its top is uneven, probably from the weathering of feldspar crystals and from a metal pin of an Ordnance Survey bench mark, now missing, which was cut as a broad arrow at the very top of the south-east face. It lies in the parish of North Bovey, about 0.9 km north of North Bovey.

Letters are cut on three faces. A letter O, 0.12 metres across, for Okehampton, is on the north-west face between the arms, and an N for Newton, 0.16 metres high, on the south-east face. An M for Moreton is cut at the end of the north-east arm. The south-west arm has no readable lettering, though a B for Bovey has been reported in the past.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1009193, which cites Crossing, The Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor (1902), page 152.

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1009193)
• Grid reference: SX 7432 8472 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)