| Corpus Refs: | RCAHMW/1976:922 |
| Site: | PYFAI |
| Discovery: | non-arch dig, 1968 Parsons, R. |
| History: | Lewis/1970, 71: `In August 1968, Mr. Robert Parsons of Pwll-yr-hebog Farm, Pen-y-fai, near Bridgend, Glamorgan, recovered from a ditch on his farm a cross-decorated stone of the Early Christian period (Pl. XIX, Fig. 1). Col. W. H. C. Llewellyn, the owner of the land, promptly informed the National Museum of Wales, and in due course generously presented the stone to the Museum, where it is now displayed in the archaeology galleries (Accession no. 68.454). The stone was found in the silted-up ditch along the north side of field no. 392 on O.S. 25-inch Sheet Glam. XL.3 (Nat. Grid. 21/887 811), outside the field-bank that divides it from Coed Ty-maen (Fig. 2). Mr. Parsons reports that its back was against the bank, and that it was leaning over on its side so that its top left-hand corner was just below the surface of the ground. Thus it seems to have been partly buried in the ditch, its top being covered by slip from the bank'. RCAHMW/1976, 54: `Found in 1968...and subsequently deposited in the National Museum of Wales...Turned up by ploughing a field'. |
| Geology: | Lewis/1970, 71: `The stone is a block of local rhaetic sandstone'. |
| Dimensions: | 1.27 x 0.59 x 0.2 (RCAHMW/1976) |
| Setting: | in display |
| Location: | National Museum of Wales National Museum of Wales. |
| Form: | cross-marked Lewis/1970, 71: `The stone is a block of local rhaetic sandstone, 1.27 m. high, 0.56 m. in maximum width and 0.21 m. thick. On the face of the upper, and widest part, is a carved cross formed of sunken panels...The butt is roughly pointed and was intended to be set in the ground to a depth of 0.38 m. The edges of the stone are dressed to shape, the top section narrowing sharply below the cross, then tapering to the point where it would have entered the ground...The form of the cross relates it to the group of `panelled cartwheel' crosses defined by Nash-Williams (ECMW, p. 38) as `erect square- or round-headed slabs, some fairly massive, decorated on one or both faces with a partly sunk or panelled cross of `Maltese' shape, with or without moulded edges and commonly enclosed in a raised ring or border giving a cartwheel-like effect'. Eleven stones were assigned to this group,[1] though two of these,[2] while falling within the terms of the above definition, possess other strong characteristics that differentiate them. The addition of the Pen-y-fai stone therefore brings the total number of this closely related group to ten. As Nash-Williams pointed out, the group belongs to a limited area of south Glamorgan, being represented in the vicinity of Neath, Margam, and Merthyr Mawr. The Pen-y-fai stone, found within this area, serves to emphasize the local nature of the group, which probably represents, as Nash-Williams claimed, `the products of a local (? monastic) school (or schools)' of the late tenth or eleventh century. [1] ECMW, nos. 196, 200, 208, 236, 237, 241, 242, 251A, 262, 265, 270A. 2 Nos. 196 and 208'. RCAHMW/1976, 54: `The shaped but weathered slab of coarse sandstone is 1.27m tall including the undressed foot (38cm) and 18--20cm thick with a rounded head 59cm wide and narrower shaft tapering from 48cm to 40cm'. |
| Condition: | complete , some |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | Lewis/1970, 71: `The decoration is well preserved except at the top, which is considerably weathered, the top edge having been eroded into a hollow. The arms of the cross are composed of four stirrup-shaped hollows, their curved ends towards the centre, having a maximum depth of 1.6 cm. The triangular interspaces are also sunken, but to a depth of less than a centimetre, so that the arms of the cross have greater emphasis. The centre of the cross, between the sunken arms and interspaces, is itself slightly hollowed, and contains, in its lower half and slightly left of centre, the faint trace of a circle. The ends of the cross-arms and interspaces are defined by a continous [sic] pecked line that is no longer traceable round the whole of the design, being weathered away at the top of the stone. Outside this a second pecked line follows closely the curved outline of the cross, but the lower edge forms a rectangle, leaving triangular spaces between the lower interspaces and its corners. In each of these spaces is a ring-and-boss design. A third pecked line follows the cross round its upper three sides, but at its lower edge diverges to define a roughly rectangular panel 25 cm. deep, which occupies the lower part of the stone'. RCAHMW/1976, 54--55: `On the one decorated face the head is filled by a ringed panelled cross formy [sic], the arms more deeply sunken than the smaller inter-arm spaces, all within an angular moulded frame. The squared hub has an incised ring somwhat off-centre, and each of the lower spandrels contains a ringed pellet. The shaft is treated as one rectangular panel framed by the angle-mouldings and is apparently plain, but faint traces of letters indicate a former pecked inscription in four lines'. |
| RCAHMW (1976): | [--] | [--] | [--] | [--] Expansion: [--] RCAHMW/1976 55 reading only |
| Orientation: | horizontal |
| Position: | n/a ; broad ; below cross ; panel In a rectangular panel below the cross (RCAHMW/1976, 55). |
| Incision: | pocked |
| Date: | 900 - 999 (RCAHMW/1976) |
| Language: | Indeterminate (ind) |
| Ling. Notes: | none |
| Palaeography: | none |
| Legibility: | poor RCAHMW/1976, 55: `faint traces of letters indicate a former pecked inscription in four lines which was presumably deliberately effaced at an early date'. |
| Lines: | 4 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |