Stone crosses once formed an important part of the religious landscape of NE England. They could be found in market squares and churchyard, as well as marking paths and routeways, often in remote locations. Some are Anglo-Saxon and many are later medieval and many have seen extensive damage, repair and renovation and comprise complex multi-period monuments.
However, this disparate group of monuments are poorly understood, both on a regional and national basis. A survey of stone crosses in County Durham and Tyne and Wear in the mid-1990s a part of the EH MPP programme. It focused on a subset of crosses that could be shown to probably be in their original position. No equivalent survey has taken place for Northumberland or Teesside.
The aim of this survey element of the project is to train small groups of volunteers to visit and record all stone crosses listed on the regional Historic Environment Records and record them using 3D recording methods, as well as carrying out map based, archive work drawing on the available resources held in the Palace Green Library, Durham University and other regional archives. This will provide updated information for the Durham/Tyne & Wear crosses, enhancing the record with new imagery, as well providing new data for Northumberland and Teesside. The resulting corpus of information will be collated and deposited with the regional HERs in an appropriate format.
