File:Mount Cross (3638515919).jpg

A gritstone wayside cross located near the edge of Stansfield Moor. It comprises a bowed shaft of bevelled rectangular section surmounted by a form of wheel cross-head. The cross is free-standing and is not set into a socle or cross base but directly into the ground. A number of stones have been wedged against the bottom to keep it upright.

The head consists of an equal-armed cross whose arms or spandrels are steeply splayed and have curving terminals and roughly circular angles. The gaps between the spandrels are filled in with a feature known as a plate. This appears to have originally had narrow strips of roll moulding round its edges. The centre of each face has a raised boss with a roll moulded rim though, on the NE face, this feature is broken. The cross-head is separate from the shaft and has an integral collar mosr clearly visible on the NE side. The cross-head measures 65cm from top to bottom and 55cm from side to side while the central bosses are each c22cm wide and the unbroken example is raised c4cm. The shaft is 130cm tall and measures 18cm wide on its NW and SE faces and a maximum of 38cm on its SW and NE faces. The broad faces taper slightly at both top and bottom but the narrow faces are of fairly uniform width. Round the top of the shaft can be seen traces of a collar consisting of two or three bands of roll moulding. Faint tool marks can be seen all over the cross, as can diagonal bands of natural glacial striations. Towards the bottom of the shaft on the NE side are what appears to be extremely faint traces of vine-scroll decoration which would suggest a fairly early date for the cross, possibly tenth or eleventh century. The irregularity of the carving overall tends to indicate that the cross is no earlier. The cross is orientated SW-NE so that the SW face overlooks the bridleway on that side. This suggests that the cross marked an ancient route across the moor, though it may also have marked an ecclesiastical division or estate boundary.