Monument record MDO141 - Cross and Hand, Batcombe

On the north side of the road is a monolithic, crudely tapered oval shaft with a necking and capital of cushion form; it stands 3½ ft. out of the ground and the capital is 11 in. square. The hand said to have been carved on one face is not traceable.

A monolithic crudely-tapered oval shaft with a necking and capital of cushion form. It stands 3 1/2 feet out of the ground and the capital is 11 inches square. It is possible it belongs to the group of pre-Conquest shafts of which the pillar of Eliseg (SJ 24 SW 1, said to be 6th century) is the best known. If so then the capital must have been cut down. The hand said to have been carved on one face is not traceable. <2>

The shaft is as described and measured by the RCHM. The traditional name "Cross and Hand" is still applied to it locally. Correctly positioned on 1:2500. <3>

So few diagnostic features remain that it is not possible to tell the function or date. This may have been a marker stone in the Romano-British tradition, such as the monolithic shafts at Wareham of the Roman period with British inscriptions. <4>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 17 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(2) BATCOMBE CROSS AND HAND on the N. side of the road 1,430 yards E. of the church, is a monolithic crudely tapered oval shaft (Plate 12) with a necking and capital of cushion form; it stands 3½ ft. out of the ground and the capital is 11 in. square. It is possible that this shaft belongs to the group of pre-conquest shafts of which the pillar of Eliseg is the best known; if so the capital must have been cut down. The hand said to have been carved on one face is not traceable.'

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

Cross and Hand (NR)

<3> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F1 NJA 28-SEP-76 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<4> Cramp, R, 2006, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: Vol VII. South-West England, 128 (Monograph). SDO17427.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199154 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2024 11:07AM