Siward's or Nun's Cross

• Height: 2.07 m
• Arm span: 76 cm
• Earliest record: 1240 Perambulation, "crucem Sywardi"
• Nun's name first recorded: 1699 (Nannecross)
• Scheduled monument: Historic England list entry 1009096 (from our database)
• Repair: 1846 to 1848, iron clamps

Nun's Cross, properly Siward's Cross, is the largest of Dartmoor's wayside crosses and probably the oldest. It stands 2.07 m tall with an arm span of 76 cm, on the southern moor south of Princetown. The 1240 Perambulation of the Forest names it as "crucem Sywardi", and a 16th century map marks it as Crux Sywardi. The inscription on its east face reads Syward or Siward between the arms, though lichen now hides it. Whether Siward was the Earl of Northumberland cannot be proved.

The west face is cut BocLonD, linked to Buckland Abbey, founded in 1278. The Nun's name first appears as Nannecross in 1699, and one suggestion derives it from a Cornish word for valley. The cross marks the Abbots' Way and the Monks' Path, so it stands at a busy meeting of tracks, and it marks the edge of Brent Moor and Walkhampton parish.

In 1846 two boys rocked it over and the shaft broke in two. A stonemason, John Newcombe, repaired it for Sir Ralph Lopes between 1846 and 1848, and two iron clamps still hold it together. Nun's Cross Farm stands just below it.

This is a location on Dartmoor that has a namesake. Read more about this: Dartmoor Places With the Same Name