Continuity and Revival: 12th-Century Standing Crosses in Huntingdonshire

Abstract

This paper arises from the authors’ preparation of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture volume on Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. As in previous volumes, we have looked hard at the manner in which the middle- and late-Saxon tradition of erecting ‘high crosses’ at significant locations, or to mark significant graves, was continued beyond the Norman Conquest in what we have called a ‘continuing tradition’ of monument type and design. Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire’s Anglo-Scandinavian stone sculpture is well known for its quantity, and this prolific local tradition of monument-making continued after the Norman Conquest. We focus here on five elaborately decorated Huntingdonshire ‘high crosses’ in the pre-Conquest tradition. They belong to two interrelated groups: two have a monastic context, three a secular one. Monuments at Fletton and Kings Ripton each marked significant points in the landscape. Whilst the monument at Hilton had an analogous function in perhaps marking a place of congregation, its date and use of architectural details also connects it with the pair of major monuments from Godmanchester and Tilbrook/Kimbolton, for which we suggest an additional political significance within the early cult of St Thomas of Canterbury.