The stump of the ancient Rey Cross - geograph

Rey Cross is the remains of a stone cross at

Stainmore Stainmore is a remote geographic area in the Pennines on the border of Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name is used for a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South ...

. It is also known as Rere Cross and is a Grade II* listed structure and a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and ...

. It is located towards the western edge of

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, approximately east of the border with

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

along the

A66 road The A66 is a major road in Northern England, which in part follows the course of the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Penrith. It runs from east of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire to Workington in Cumbria. Route From its easter ...

. Rey Cross was ordered by

Edmund I Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. Afte ...

(r.939-946) to serve as a boundary marker between England and Scotland.

Legend

Eric Bloodaxe

A long-held local legend states that the cross was the burial place of

Eric Bloodaxe Eric Haraldsson ( non, Eiríkr Haraldsson , no, Eirik Haraldsson; died 954), nicknamed Bloodaxe ( non, blóðøx , no, Blodøks) and Brother-Slayer ( la, fratrum interfector), was a 10th-century Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from ...

, Viking Ruler of

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

.Bibby, Andrew, and John Morrison. The Backbone of England: Landscape and Life on the Pennine Watershed, p. 166. London: Frances Lincoln, 2008. Google Books. However, Norman Davies posits that it was a "boundary stone . . . halfway between Penrith and

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, Northern England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automato ...

." The antiquarian

W. G. Collingwood William Gershom Collingwood (; 6 August 1854, in Liverpool – 1 October 1932) was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading.Obituary in '' The Times'', ''Mr W.G. Collingwood'', ''Artist, Au ...

(1854 – 1932) suggested that the cross might have been commissioned to commemorate the Norwegian Viking king

Style

The antiquarian

(1854 – 1932) examined the cross and concluded that it was an English-Style wheel-cross with figured decoration from about the 10th century. St Columba’s Cross,

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newqua ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

is an example of a ''ringed cross''.

Name

Name history

* ''Reir Croiz de Staynmore'' (

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...

French) c.1280. * ''Rerecrosse'' (English) c.1610. * ''Reicrosse'' (Scots) c.1610.

Toponym (English)

''Rerecrosse'' (English) c.1610 * The honour cross. * At the honour cross. * By the honour cross. The letter ' R ' is a

Medieval English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...

(female) abbreviation ( ” the, at the, by the ” ). The element '' ' ere ' '' is from

'' ' ære ' '' : ( ”

honour Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

” )

Toponym (Scots)

''Reicrosse'' (Scots) c.1610 * Cross of the burial place. The element '' ' Rei ' '' is from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

'' ' hreyr ' '': ( ” cairn, burial place ” ) The Scots version of the name, which became the name we know today, was based on the legend that the Norwegian Viking king

had been buried there.

Geography

Natural England maps

Maps for Rey Cross and the surrounding area, showing ''Access'', ''Administrative Geographies'' and other criteria from Natural England: * MAGiC MaP : Listed building. * MAGiC MaP : Scheduled Monument. * MAGiC MaP : Parish boundary. * MAGiC MaP : Sites of Special Scientific Interest. * MAGiC MaP : Gods Bridge SSSI and Pennine Way.

Stainmore Pass Roman road

The Stainmore Pass

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

(''Margary route 82'' ) was a trans Pennine route from Scotch Corner in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

to Brougham near Penrith,

. * Its main purpose was to connect the Roman road

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond into what is n ...

( from

Eboracum Eboracum () was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimat ...

( ''York'' ) ) with the road network on the north west side of the Pennine chain, and especially the Roman fort of

Petriana Uxelodunum (with the alternative Roman name of Petriana and the modern name of Stanwix Fort) was a Roman fort. It was the largest fort on Hadrian's Wall, and is now buried beneath the suburb of Stanwix, in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. Roman n ...

( ''Stanwix'' ) near Luguvalium ( ''Carlisle'' ). Petriana was the largest fort on

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

. Unlike many other Roman roads its route is well known since it was largely defined by the topography of the Stainmore pass through the Pennine chain. The modern

follows most of the route of the original Roman road for the same reason.

History

Early history 10th century

At the beginning of the 10th century, the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has bee ...

and the Stainmore Pass Roman road separated the Kingdom of Northumbria to the north from the Viking Kingdom of Jórvík to the south. A large part of modern day

was then part of the

Kingdom of Strathclyde Strathclyde (lit. " Strath of the River Clyde", and Strað-Clota in Old English), was a Brittonic successor state of the Roman Empire and one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, located in the region the Welsh tribes referred to as ...

and was known as '' " Scottish Cumberland " ''. During the 10th century the extent of the land ruled variously by Northumbria, Strathclyde and Jórvík changed frequently; the Kingdom of Strathclyde was probably at its largest extent c.940 A.D. In 927 A.D.

Æthelstan Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his fir ...

(r.924-939) conquered the Viking Kingdom of Jórvík, previously part of the Northumbrian Kingdom, and subsequently became the first

King of the English This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Sa ...

. In the same year Æthelstan successfully arranged a

peace treaty A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surre ...

between various Anglo-Saxon kings, known as the ''Peace of Eamont''. Rey Cross was ordered by Æthelstan's half-brother

(r.939-946) to serve as a boundary marker between England and Scotland.

Edgar the Peaceful (Chester 973 A.D.)

In 973 A.D.

Edgar the Peaceful Edgar ( ang, Ēadgār ; 8 July 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. The younger son of King Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, he came to the throne as a teenager followin ...

sailed to

Deva Victrix Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II ''Adiutrix'' in the 70s AD as the Roman army advanced north ag ...

(''Chester Roman fort'') where he received homage from the rulers of

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and the

Kingdom of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or North ...

. The list of rulers included: *

Kenneth II Cináed mac Maíl Coluim ( gd, Coinneach mac Mhaoil Chaluim, label=Scottish Gaelic language, Modern Scottish Gaelic, Anglicisation, anglicised Kenneth II, and nicknamed , "The Fratricide, Fratricidal"; died 995) was Kingdom of Scotland, King of Sc ...

, king of

(r.971–995). * Máel Coluim, king of

. In return for their homage, Edgar confirmed that: *

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scott ...

was part of the

Kingdom of Alba The Kingdom of Alba ( la, Scotia; sga, Alba) was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the ...

was part of the

Saint Margaret of Scotland (11th century)

Original site of the cross

The exact location of the original site of the cross is not known. It has been re-sited at least twice, most recently during road widening (1990-1992), and previously in 1887.

Recent history

In the late 1980s the widening of the

was planned through Stainmore. In 1990 the cross was lifted from its then position to the south of the road within the Rey Cross Roman Marching Camp and an excavation of the ground underneath was performed. No bones were found at the site, although it remains possible that Eric's burial might be elsewhere on the Stainmore moors. During the road widening works the cross was moved to the

Bowes Museum The Bowes Museum is an art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoî ...

for safekeeping. After completion of the road works in 1992 the monument was re-sited to its current position which is easily accessible from a layby in the road.Vyner, Blaise, et al. Stainmore: The Archaeology of a North Pennine Pass, p. 118. Hartlepool: Tees Archaeology & English Heritage, 2001.

Chronology

Chronology 10th century

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

;Books * * * * * * ;Downloads * *{{cite book , editor1-last= Page , editor1-first= W.H. , editor1-link= William Henry Page , year= 1914, pages= 42–49, series=

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of E ...

, publisher= British History Online, title= 'Parishes: Bowes', in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1 , url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol1/pp42-49 , access-date= 1 October 2022 Archaeological sites in County Durham High crosses in England Grade II* listed buildings in County Durham Scheduled monuments in County Durham Bowes