5938

 

I  

Designated  

14/05/1970  

 

The Carew Cross  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Carew  

Tenby  

Carew Village  

204676  

203708  

 

In Carew village, in a small roadside enclosure taken from Castle Green opposite the Carew Inn.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The Cross is believed to commemorate Maredudd ap Edwin, who, with his brother Hywel, was joint ruler of Deheubarth from 1033. This is on the basis of the reading of its inscription proposed by C A Ralegh Radford. Maredudd was slain in 1035, and the Cross may therefore be very closely dated. It is decorated in the same school of carving as the cross at Nevern. The Cross consists of two stones of different origin. The top is Carmarthenshire sandstone and the lower part an igneous stone from Preseli. Its original location is is unrecorded, and it is only known with certainty to have been at Carew from about 1690. Its roadside location is unusual for such early Christian monuments, and it may have been brought to its present location as an ornament to the Castle. The damage to the W face of the upper stone (part of the carved design having flaked off) occurred before 1690. Fenton in 1811 illustrates the Cross standing on a low plinth. In about 1822 (Laws says 1826) the road was lowered and the Cross reset on a plinth bearing that date. The top stone became dislodged in 1844, and the Vicar of Carew, Rev. Lloyd, caused it to be reset in its socket in lead. The foot of the Cross was vandalised with a bench-mark in about 1860. The stone was at risk from traffic, so in 1925 it was moved back from the road for safety. It was removed altogether for safety during the 1939-45 war and stored in a basement in the Castle. After return to the roadside its position has again been improved. Access to the W side with its inscription is now ideal although the view of the E side is obscured by railings.  

The upper stone consists of a wheel-head and neck of sandstone, the carved cross having short enlarging arms overlapping the ring and terminating in segments of a circle. The voids between the ring and the arms of the cross are pierced. On one face the cross carries inscribed cruciform lines, on the other a fragment of an interlace survives but most of the design is lost. The neck carries two panels of key decoration on each side. There is no edge decoration. The upper stone is tenoned into the lower one, with some lead-staining of the latter. The lower stone is also decorated in entirely abstract patterns. There are four panels on each side, of varying size, with key or interlace decorations. One panel on the W face carries an inscription at the left, with a blank at the right seemingly waiting for a second inscription which was never added. The inscription is read as 'Margiteut Rex Edg[uin] Filius'. The two edges of the lower stone are decorated in guilloche. The stone has little ramped enlargements at the foot.  

 

Listed grade I as a characteristically Welsh composite cross and one of the finest early Christian monuments in the Principality.  

Ancient Monument no. Pe 9.,
E Laws, Little England beyond Wales (1888), pp.74ff;,
R Fenton, Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire, 1811 (1903 ed.), illustr. opp. p.133;,
V E Nash-Williams, The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, 1980, pp.182-4;,
W G Spurrell, History of Carew (1921), p.61;,
C A Ralegh Radford, 'The Inscription on the Carew Cross' in Arch. Cambr. C (1949), pp.253-255;,
R Turner, Lamphey Bishop's Palace [etc.] (Cadw 1991);,
RCAHM Inventory (1925), p.50;,
Dyfed Arch Trust S&M PRN 3485.,