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Object type: Part of cross-head [1]
Measurements: H. 23 cm (9 in); W. 38 cm (15 in); D. 14.5 cm (5.75 in)
Stone type: Pale red (5R 6/2), fine- to coarse-grained (0.2 to 0.6 mm, but mostly medium-grained between 0.4 and 0.5 mm), sub-angular to sub-rounded, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. A few scattered sub-angular to rounded, black pebbles 0.3 to 0.6 mm across. Chester Pebble Beds Formation?, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 214-17
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 89-90
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The curving cable moulding forming the border between shaft and head survives on both broad faces. The spandrels are unpierced.
A (broad): Nothing survives of the shaft ornament apart from a fragment of the border moulding. Above are two inward-curving mouldings, both cabled, which form the edges of the lower cross-arm; they enclose a triquetra with pointed turn. To the right are traces of interlace which Cox represented as a further triquetra (Allen 1895, 170).
B (narrow): Possible traces of a step pattern on the shaft
C (broad): Similar to face A, though with no trace of decoration outside the curving borders of the arm. Traces of both cable-moulding borders survive on the shaft.
D (narrow): Within cable-moulding borders there are the remains of an openwork two-strand interlace pattern.
White's drawing confirms my own view that the cabled border of the arm on face A does not over-run the boundary between shaft and head as suggested by the illustration published by Allen (1895, 170; White, R. 1986, fig. 2). The fragment is most closely related to the circle-head Neston 2, sharing with it the step pattern and (probably) ring-encircled twist on the edge of the shaft (Ills. 200–3). Similarly the boundary between shaft and head, together with the arms, are all marked on both crosses by a cabled moulding. This suggests that the Neston 5 fragment displays the ornamental repertoire of a circle-headed cross with unpierced spandrels — and is thus related to the group centred on Chester St John. However, whilst the use of a triquetra in the arms is frequently employed within that group, nowhere else within that set is the spandrel apparently filled with further interlacing motifs.
