Full Report for Listed Buildings


The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building and (i) any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.

Summary Description


Reference Number
726
Building Number
 
Grade
II*  
Status
Designated  
Date of Designation
19/07/1966  
Date of Amendment
 
Name of Property
Cross in churchyard of St Mary's Church  
Address
 

Location


Unitary Authority
Denbighshire  
Community
Derwen  
Town
 
Locality
Derwen  
Easting
307025  
Northing
350716  
Street Side
 
Location
Opposite the south porch of St Mary's Church.  

Description


Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary  
Period
 

History
A pre-Reformation cross in late Gothic style, much of the detail eroded. It clearly belongs, with the main features of the church itself, to a late C15 or early C16 period in which Derwen enjoyed enhanced patronage. It was specified as early as 1914 by the Royal Commission as 'a monument especially worthy of preservation'. The lack of a foot moulding to the shaft may suggest it has been shortened; the pedestal may not be contemporary with the shaft and the steps are restored or repaired. Because of the evident rise in level of the adjacent ground the monument must have been re-erected at least once.  

Exterior
A fine churchyard cross or pillar, with a sculptured head; the top of the finial missing. The shaft is oblong, standing on a plain pedestal with spurred corners and two plinth steps. The arrisses of the shaft are chamfered and carry raised flowers and crowned heads at intervals. There is a sculptured band beneath the head. The top has single niches at north and south and double niches at east and west, beneath ogee canopies. The images in the niches are now very worn, and have been variously interpreted; the unifying theme is perhaps the Virgin, appropriately to the dedication of the church. To the west is the Crucifixion, with St John and the Virgin. To the east perhaps the Coronation of the Virgin, otherwise interpreted as Piety or as the Father in Glory, and to north a much weathered carving, probably the Virgin and Child. To the south is a figure apparently not conforming to the iconography of the Virgin, namely an angel with scales; perhaps St Michael representing the Last Judgement, or a representation of Justice.  

Interior
 

Reason for designation
Listed at Grade II* as a fine example of late pre-Reformation stonecarving. Scheduled Ancient Monument DE162.  

Sources
  • S Glynne, Notes on Older Churches. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1884, pp169-70 (written 1849);,
  • E Hubbard, Clwyd (Buildings of Wales, 1986) p156;,
  • Lloyd-Williams and Underwood, Architectural Antiquities and Village Churches of Denbighshire, (1872) plate 32;,
  • D R Thomas, History of St Asaph, (1906-13), II p75;,
  • Royal Commission, Denbighshire, (1914), pp ix, 47-8;,
  • Cadw Scheduled Ancient Monument Record;,
  • NMR File Eccl. SJ05SW [...SE].,

Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]



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