The Cross at Croes Llwyd Farm,
Raglan, Monmouthshire
Raglan (; ( cy, Rhaglan) is a village and community in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom. It is located some 9 miles south-west of Monmouth, midway between Monmouth and Abergavenny on the A40 road very near to the junction with ...
is a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
cross which indicated a boundary of the Lordship of Raglan. As a rare medieval survival, it is both a
Grade I 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 d ...
.
History and description
The cross stands on Broom Lane, to the east of Broom House, off the Raglan to Usk road.
It is high, with an octagonal shaft.
The Monmouthshire antiquarian
Sir Joseph Bradney
Colonel Sir Joseph Alfred Bradney, (11 January 1859 – 21 July 1933) was a British soldier, historian and archaeologist, best known for his multivolume ''A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present T ...
, in his multi-volume ''
'', described it as a "singularly well-preserved stone, the head and shaft being hewn out of the same piece." The cross was the subject of Article 452 in the series ''Monmouthshire Sketchbook'' by the author and artist
Fred Hando
Frederick James Hando MBE (23 March 1888 – 17 February 1970) was a Welsh writer, artist and schoolteacher from Newport. He chronicled the history, character and folklore of Monmouthshire, which he also called Gwent, in a series of nearly ...
for the ''
South Wales Argus
The ''South Wales Argus'' is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Newport, South Wales. ''The Argus'' is distributed in Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, and Torfaen.
History
The paper was founded as the ''South Wales Argus ...
'' between 1922 and 1970. Hando wrote that the cross was one of the only two remaining crosses in Monmouthshire, from a total of seventy-nine, which had survived with its head intact following the "Puritan folly of 1643." He described its name, the "White Cross", as deriving from its whitewashed appearance but suggested "the appropriate name should be Grey Cross" and that the cross was "at least five centuries" old. The cross is a
Grade I 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 d ...
.
The cross appears to have had a dual purpose, as a
preaching cross
A preaching cross is a Christian cross sometimes surmounting a pulpit, which is erected outdoors to designate a preaching place.
In Britain and Ireland, many free-standing upright crosses – or high crosses – were erected. Some of these cros ...
and as a
boundary marker
A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. There are several other t ...
for the delineation of the medieval Lordship of Raglan.
Bradney records the mention of the cross in the grant of lands to
William Herbert, "...''and from this directly to a cross called Crosse Lloyd''". Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell, in her study, ''The Crosses of Monmouthshire'' published in 1893, also notes that Croes Llwyd is the only wayside cross in the county which retains its carved head, suggesting that its survival was due to the absence of figurative carving. It is thought that the cross was moved, in about 1870, from a possible prior location at map reference SO40390659 (N 51.754813, W 2.8649842).
[ Mitchell recalls the local tradition regarding the moving of the cross: "a man living at The Broom moved it to his garden; from that moment he had no luck with anything; his animals died etc.; he attributed his misfortunes to having sacrilegiously taken possession of the cross, so carried it out of his garden and cast it down on a piece of waste ground".
]
Footnotes
References
Sources
*
*
*{{Cite book
, last=Mitchell , first=Elizabeth Harcourt
, title=The Crosses of Monmouthshire
, url=https://archive.org/details/crossesofmonmout00mitc/page/n3/mode/2up
, year=1893
, publisher= Caerleon and Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association
, oclc=1154836676
Grade I listed buildings in Monmouthshire
Scheduled monuments in Monmouthshire
Buildings and structures in Monmouthshire
Monumental crosses in the United Kingdom