Welcome to the blog of the Gloucestershire cross-slab survey. Cross-slabs are a class of medieval stone grave markers which are decorated with a cross motif; they are most commonly found at churches and monastic sites, although some are held in museums. The survey aims to record all surviving medieval cross-slabs across Gloucestershire, compile a gazetteer database, and publish a corpus of Gloucestershire cross-slabs.

Sunday 25 January 2015

Standing on the shoulders of giants....

Cross-slabs have been studied for many years with the seminal works being 'A Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of the Middle Ages' by  E.L. Cutts in 1849, followed by 'Christian Monuments in England and Wales' by the Rev. C. Boutell in 1854 and K.E. Styan's 1902 work 'A Short History of Sepulchral Cross-slabs with reference to other emblems found thereon'. In Gloucestershire Ulric Daubeney noted cross-slabs ('sepulchral stones') in his 1921 'Ancient Cotswold Churches' but aside from short notes there has not been an overview of Gloucestershire cross-slabs since Butler and Jones in 1972 (Bris. & Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. 91 (1972) pp 150-8, 'The Cross-Slabs of Gloucestershire'.