Image ID: 41971

The Old Cross, Stapleford

Church Lane - Church Street
Stapleford
Nottinghamshire
England

The Saxon Cross standing in St Helen's churchyard was probably erected in about 1000AD and is believed to be the oldest Christian memorial in Nottinghamshire. It is over three metres tall and features many interlacing carvings, including a symbol of St Luke treading on a serpent. St Luke, whose emblem (the eagle) is still clearly visible on the shaft. Travelling preachers would have called local people to worship near it before a church was built. It may have been responsible for the name Stapleford, meaning 'a post near a ford or river crossing'. The shaft once lay on its side in the churchyard, but in 1760 it was set up on a stepped base and moved to a location at the junction of Church Street and Church Lane. In 1820 the base was reconstructed and the ball top added replacing the original smallish, Saxon-type cross mounted on the top. Iron railings were fixed to the sloping top of the base in 1908. It was moved back to the churchyard in 1928. A new stone ball was placed on top of the cross in the year 2000 to replace the other ball which was damaged in a storm in 1916.

Date: c 1900

Organisation Reference: NCCS001714

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