Churchyard of St Meubred's church, south of church (SX 1230 6868)

Cross-head first recorded 1858, built into chancel wall (Blight 1858, 26). Shaft was also built into church wall; both were removed 1872, during church restoration, and by 1878 erected in present location (Iago 1874–8, 363).

St Meubred

Monument broken but stable; ornament clear but much lichen; text worn; situation good

Complete cross with rectangular shaft. The cross-head is of type E8, with widely splayed cross-arms and a slightly recessed ring, type b. The openings are triangular and each has a shallow projecting band on the inside of the ring. A small section at the top of the tapering shaft has been lost or cut off. A narrow roll-moulding encloses the decoration on the head and runs around the edge of the ring. On the shaft is a wider roll-moulding, within which all the carved decoration is deeply cut; however the inscription is less clear.

A (broad): Linked single-strand triquetras or Stafford knots (simple pattern E) fill the cross-arms. In the centre of the cross-head is a small flat boss with a shallow hole in the centre. The decoration on the shaft is in three panels, without any moulding or line between them. The top panel contains the inscription, incised in three horizontal lines. The text is probably incomplete at the beginning where part of the shaft is lost. The letters are 4 to 8 cm in height, are rather deteriorated and are predominantly insular in form. The text reads:

The middle panel contains an unusual and worn knot, apparently consisting of two rings with a central horizontal bar separating two interlacing 'V'-shaped rings. Below this is a panel of poorly laid-out six-strand plait, separated by a glide from a further knot, now hidden below ground level.

B (narrow): According to Langdon there is a single Carrick Bend (simple pattern F knot) on the cross-arm (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 356), but this is not now clear. On the ring is a central raised band. On the shaft is a simple plait which metamorphoses, about one third of the way down, into a simple ring-twist (closed circuit pattern A), the knots separated by glides.

C (broad): Double-strand linked triquetras (simple pattern E) fill the cross-arms. At the centre of the cross-head is a small flat boss with a shallow hole in the middle. On the shaft is a spiral scroll with ridged nodes and a small bud in each of the spandrels. The pattern is incomplete at the top where part of the shaft is lost.

D (narrow): On the end of the cross-arm is a pattern which may be either a simple two-strand plait or a rectangular fret, J4 (Fig. 19b, p. 72). The top third of the shaft is filled by a rectangular fret, K1 (Fig. 19a) and below this, a vertebral ring-chain (type Cvii).

The text on face A probably reads: [A]R[A]H+ (Ill. 42), and is likely to have been a personal name of unknown origin.

The use of the Manx type of ring-chain implies a date from the tenth century (Bailey 1980, 72, 217). The use of ring-knots and simple frets are also typical work of this period. The tight spiral scroll, which in strong contrast with St Neot 3 (Ills. 155–8) is entirely stripped of leaves and rendered as an unnaturalistic pattern, bears some resemblance to the scrollwork of the Cumbrian 'spiral-scroll school', which is of Viking-period date (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 36).

The presence of ring-chain indicates a place which, despite its relative seclusion on the edge of Bodmin Moor, was open to influence from artistic ideas current around the Irish Sea in the tenth century. Within Cornwall the cross was locally influential. Most notably, the spiral scroll (although not in such a tight form) is seen on various other monuments in the area, for example Lanhydrock 1, Lanivet 1 and War-leggan 1 (Ills. 110, 114, 239).

The cross can thus be reasonably securely dated. The problem is to establish what such a prestigious monument is doing at Cardinham, where there is no record of a religious community. An early Christian memorial stone provides evidence of the early origin of the site (Okasha 1993, 88–90, no. 9; Thomas, A. C. 1994, 265, 307, 328, no. 458); this has been dated to the sixth century by Thomas. Other stones in the parish from Tawna and Welltown (Okasha 1993, 288–90, 322–5; Thomas, A. C. 1994, 265, 307, 328) are further evidence of Christian activity in the area. The early name of Cardinham church-site is not known: Cardinham is the name of the castle which was the centre of a major fiefdom established here by Richard Fitz Turold, one of the chief landowners of Cornwall, after the Norman Conquest (Henderson, C. 1925, 71; Picken 1955). The name of nearby Trezance refers to the 'land of the saint' (Padel 1985, 204, 217), a name unique in Cornwall which could refer to an ecclesiastical site at Trezance (Picken 1955, 204–5), or to land which was formerly part of the endowment of the church, but either way implying the presence of an early land-owning community in the area whose lands had been appropriated before the Norman Conquest. Thus the cross could be associated either with an early religious community at Cardinham church-site or alternatively, and perhaps more likely, with a secular patron who was a predecessor of the powerful Norman earls of Cardinham. Unfortunately the inscription is too worn to give a clue, though it is likely to be a personal name and possibly that of the patron.

Tenth century

Blight 1858, 26 and fig.; Polsue 1867, 196; Iago 1874–8, 363–4 and figs.; Langdon, Arthur and Allen, J. R. 1888, 312, 314–16, 324; Langdon, Arthur 1889a, 318–19, 323–5, 340–6 and figs.; Langdon, Arthur 1889c, 239 and figs.; Langdon, Arthur 1890–1, 35, 49–52, 54–7, 92 and figs.; Borlase, W. C. 1893, 183–4; Langdon, Arthur and Allen, J. R. 1895, 50, 57, 59, no. 30 and figs.; Langdon, Arthur 1896, 354–7, passim and figs.; Daniell 1906, 244–5, 330–1; Langdon, Arthur 1906, 411–12, 415, 438, 443, pl. V, fig. 32; Sedding, E. 1909, 37; Henderson, C. 1925, 71; Collingwood, W. 1927, 149; Henderson, C. 1929c, 48; Macalister 1929, 181 and fig.; Hencken 1932, 270, 274–6, 294 and figs.; Jenkin 1934, 31–2; Henderson, C. 1935, 193; Malim 1936, 99; Dexter and Dexter 1938, 161–2, 165, 223, 261–8 and figs.; Macalister 1949, 178, no. 1046, and fig.; Ellis, G. 1952–3a, 3; Ellis, G. 1952–3c, 57–60 and figs.; Ellis, G. 1954–5b, 194; Ellis, G. 1959–61b, 197; Chadwick 1963, 121, 226 and fig.; Pevsner 1970, 51; Axford 1975, 85; Laing, L. 1975, 140 and figs.; Pearce 1978, 108, 178; Thomas, A. C. 1978, 78; Pearce 1981, 216 and fig.; Todd 1987, 296 and figs.; Okasha 1993, 85–7 and passim, no. 8, fig. II.8; Langdon, Andrew 1996a, 1, fig. on back cover; Langdon, Andrew 1997, 38; Salter 1999, 19; Turner 2003, 188, pl. 11.1; Pearce 2004, 313–14 and fig.; Langdon, Andrew 2005, 28, no. 29, and fig.; Turner 2006c, 38–9, fig. 17