Hallguards
Cross (Anglian)
Site Name Hallguards
Classification Cross (Anglian)
Alternative Name(s) Hoddom
Canmore ID 75297
Site Number NY17SE 60
NGR NY 1619 7288
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/75297
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Hoddom
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
Hallguards (Hoddom 78), Dumfriesshire, cross-shaft
Measurements: H 0.23m, W 0.16-0.15m, D 0.11m
Stone type:
Place of discovery: NY 1619 7288
Present location: at Hallguards House.
Evidence for discovery: found in August 1993 during fieldwork for RCAHMS 1997. It may have come originally from nearby Hoddom.
Present condition: broken with surface damage.
Description
All four faces bear plant scroll ornament carved in deep relief, within a plain roll moulding which has been carved immediately within the flat band moulding along the edges. Face A bears most of one and part of a second scroll with a diagonal branch between them, and there are tri-lobed berry bunches within the upper scroll and above the second. Hanging from the upper scroll is a single berry with two split leaves. All the berries have drilled centres.
Face C bears part of a scroll and a branch terminating in a leaf. The narrow faces B and D bear branches leaves and drilled berries but apparently no scrolls.
Date: ninth century
References: RCAHMS 1997, no 1752, 254.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019.
Field Visit (25 August 1993)
NY17SE 60 1619 7288
A fragment of an Anglian cross-shaft was discovered in use as a step at the foot of a garden path descending from Hallguards House (NY17SE 3) to a grotto formed from a rock overhang at the foot of a natural escarpment.
The shaft, which is decorated on each face, tapers from 162mm wide at the base to 150mm at the top, and is up to 111mm thick and 230mm long. The edges of the slab are broken and worn, but the detail itself is remarkably well preserved. The front and reverse of the shaft are decorated with vinescroll, leaf fronds and berry bunches, while the sides have a more sinuous arrangement of long stems, fronds and single berries, contained by a fillet and flat band margin.
The stone was handed to the owners, Mr and Mrs T D Griffiths, for safekeeping.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS, PC), 25 August 1993
Listed as Hallguards, Anglian cross-shaft, probably from Hoddom (NY17SE 56).
RCAHMS 1997.
