| Corpus Refs: | Huebner/1876:76 Macalister/1949:1017 Nash-Williams/1950:259 RCAHMW/1976:867 |
| Site: | PRTT2 |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 1857 Westwood, J.O. |
| History: | Rhys/1873, 8: `Aug. 29.-- On leaving Margam I had a look at two stones near the station at Port Talbot. One of them has on it a cross and the inscription'. Westwood/1876, 31--32: `The cylindrical stone of which the upper half only is represented (the lower part being quite plain and cylindrical) now stands against the south side of the south wall of the yard of the neat, newly-built farm-house about 200 yards from the Port Talbot Station, and was described and figured by myself in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1857, p. 57'. Rhys/1899, 144: `A cross which used to be at Port Talbot is now also in the church at Margam'. Macalister/1949, 159: `In the year 1849 the stone was lying under a hedge at the farmhouse of Cwrt Isaf'. RCAHMW/1976, 40--41: `noted before 1847 at Lower Court (Cwrt Isaf), a farmhouse formerly near Port Talbot; it was subsequently moved to Margam and is now in Margam Stones Museum'. |
| Geology: | |
| Dimensions: | 1.14 x 0.38 x 0.38 (RCAHMW/1976) |
| Setting: | in display |
| Location: | Margam Stones Museum (Cat: no. 4) Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `The stone is in Margam Abbey Museum'. |
| Form: | cross-marked Westwood/1876, 31--32: `The cylindrical stone of which the upper half only is represented (the lower part being quite plain and cylindrical)...is about 5 feet high, and has the upper end injured. It is gradually but slightly thickened to its base, and is marked with three crosses of the ordinary Latin form...The smaller outline cross (facing the west) is accompanied by the inscription'. Macalister/1949, 159: `A cylindrical pillar...tapering slightly downward'. Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `Roughly cylindrical pillar-stone... 56+" h. x 11 1/2--14" diam. The pillar bears three incised crosses, and is also inscribed'. RCAHMW/1976, 41: `Cylindrical pillar-stone (Plate 3) with three incised crosses (Fig. 6, h i j) and an inscription...When discovered, the upper part had been fractured off and its length was recorded as about 1.5m, of which 1.14m is now exposed; the diameter is 38cm'. |
| Condition: | incomplete , some Macalister/1949, 159: `The top is broken off'. Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `top fractured away'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | Westwood/1876, 32: `marked with three crosses of the ordinary Latin form varying in size, two of them (seen in fig. 3) having the outlines formed of incised lines, whilst the third (now facing the east, seen at the right side of fig. 2) is entirely incised'. Macalister/1949, 159: `There are two plain crosses on the stone, the dexter arm of the one lying in the lower sinister canton of the other'. Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `Front. Outline cross with faintly splayed limbs (Fig. 7, 8) and an inscription...Right. Outline cross as before. Back. Deeply incised linear cross with faintly splayed limbs (Fig. 6, 7)'. RCAHMW/1976, 41: `Cross (a) on the S. side as now set is a linear Latin cross 38cm tall and cut as a broad groove with slightly splayed arms (the upper arm lost by fracture). The two other crosses, (b) to W. and (c) to N., are larger and in outline form with regularly splayed arms; they are virtually identical but the upper limb of (c) is lost by fracture'. |
| Westwood, J.O. (1857): | TO || ME Expansion: TOME Westwood/1876 32 reading only |
| Rhys, J. (1873): | TO || ME Expansion: TOME Translation: The cross of Thomas (PN). Rhys/1873 8 reading only Rhys/1899 145 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1949): | TO || ME Expansion: TOME Translation: Thomae (PN). Macalister/1949 159 reading only |
| Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950): | TO || ME Expansion: TOME Translation: (The Cross) of Thomas (PN). Nash-Williams/1950 161 concise discussion |
| RCAHMW (1976): | TO || ME Expansion: TOME Translation: Of Thomas (PN). RCAHMW/1976 41 concise discussion |
| Orientation: | horizontal |
| Position: | ind ; broad ; within quadrants ; undivided Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `Front. Outline cross... and an inscription (Fig. 175) in one line evenly disposed across the lower interspaces, reading horizontally'. RCAHMW/1976, 41: `Below the cross-arm of (c) an inscription in half-uncials set horizontally and divided centrally by the lower limb of the cross'. |
| Incision: | inc Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `picked'. |
| Date: | 700 - 899 (RCAHMW/1976) RCAHMW/1976, 41: `The inscription and larger crosses suggest an 8th- or 9th-century date, but this may have been a re-using of the stone with an earlier linear cross'. |
| Language: | name only (rbook) |
| Ling. Notes: | none |
| Palaeography: | Westwood/1876, 32: `The smaller outline cross (facing the west) is accompanied by the inscription t o m e, in minuscule Anglo-Saxon characters'. Nash-Williams/1950, 161: `Round half-uncials, clumsily picked'. |
| Legibility: | good |
| Lines: | 1 |
| Carving errors: | n |
| Doubtful: | no |
Westwood/1876, 32: `evidently intended to commemorate the St. Thomas to whom the neighbouring but now long-destroyed `Capell S. Thomae in terra quam W. Comes Glocestriae dedit Willelmo filio Henrici inter aquas de Avene et Neth' in the charter of confirmation by Nicholas Bishop of Llandaff'.
Rhys/1899, 145: `Westwood thinks it referred to the St. Thomas to whom a chapel -- now extinct -- was dedicated in the neighbourhood in Norman times'.
Macalister/1949, 159: `perhaps a dedicatory inscription to the Apostle, rather than a memorial of one of his local namesakes'.
RCAHMW/1976, 41: `The name either refers to the person commemorated or, less probably, indicates a dedication (of the site) to St. Thomas the Apostle (see p. 21)'.