Sheffield Cross

The Sheffield Cross is an Anglo-Saxon Christian monument, now on display in the British Museum.

The Cross has been dated to the early ninth century. It is believed to have stood on the future site of Sheffield Parish Church (now Sheffield Cathedral).cite web |url=http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=314520 |title=Monument No. 314520 |accessdate=2008-03-02 |work=Pastscape |publisher=English Heritage ] The British Museum hypothesise that it may have been demolished in 1570 during the English Reformation. [http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/s/stone_cross_shaft.aspx British Museum - Stone cross shaft] ] Another theory holds that it was originally from Derbyshire. [Neville T. Sharpe, "Crosses of the Peak District" (Landmark Collectors Library, 2002)]

The shaft of the stone cross was rediscovered hollowed out and in use as a quenching trough in a cutler's workshop in the Park district of Sheffield. The head of the cross is missing. The shaft is carved with a vine motif, a figure with a bow and arrow placed amidst the tendrils.

The style of the cross is Mercian, and it is the most northerly known example of this type. It resembles crosses from Bakewell and Eyam, and David Hey uses the similarity of the vine scrolls in the Eyam and Sheffield crosses to hypothesise a single craftsperson. [David Hey, "Medieval South Yorkshire"]

Several crosses in Sheffield survived the Reformation, including the Market Cross, Irish Cross and Townhead Cross, but all are now lost.

References