NHER 8566 (Monument record) - Late Saxon or medieval cross on east side of Yarmouth Road

1963.
Stone cross with four carved panels under a pillar ?early 11th century. Evangelistic symbols angel, lion, ox and eagle.
C. Green (NCM) has detail drawings.
See (S1) and (S2).
R. R. Clarke (NCM).

23 January 1991. Visit. On verge of main road.
Base 90cm (3 feet) square with stop angles. Stub of shaft about 90 cm (3 feet) high; symbols visible on two faces in good condition. Other two obscured by ivy and brambles. Remains of sockets for upper part. (S3) dates this to 14th century and a medieval date seems more correct, as S. Margeson (NCM) agrees.
E. Rose (NLA), 24 January 1991

September 1998. Scheduled.
Scheduling Description:
The monument includes the remains of a standing stone cross located on the east side of the Yarmouth Road to the south of the town of Hemsby and about 50m to the east of the redundant railway line. The cross, which is Listed Grade II, is 14th century in date and includes the socket stone and the lower part of the shaft.
The socket stone is set into a bank; it measures 0.71m square at the base and 0.39m in height, rising through chamfered corners with stop angles to an octagonal section on the surface. The square socket hole cut into the surface of the socket stone measures 0.4m square. The lower part of the shaft, which is mortised into the socket stone, is 0.36m square, and is broken off at a height of 0.74m. Each of the four faces of the shaft bears a small recessed panel, 0.19m from the base of the shaft and 0.23m square. The north face portrays an eagle, the east a winged bull, the south an angel and the west a winged lion. They are carved in low relief and each figure is holding a banner or scroll. It is thought that the designs on the four panels represent the four evangelists, St John, St Luke, St Matthew and St Mark, respectively. The full height of the cross in its present form is 1.13m.
Information from (S4) and (S5).

It is suggested in (S6) that this and several other crosses and stones in the parish may have functioned as santuary markers. Cozens-Hardy is however dismissive of the sanctuary marker theory, which he regarded as "…unsupported by any documentary evidence" (S1).
P. Watkins (HES), 21 August 2020.