The History of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Nottingham
St. Mary's Nottingham, two Williams and a cross pomeé - continuation

The "Votive Crosses"

Around 1937, J. Holland Walker, then churchwarden, wrote a manuscript guide to St. Mary's (copy held in the Church). Some four years later, with a few small amendments, this appeared in printed form. My attention was captured by his mention that on the fifth pier from the west, in the south arcade, is inscribed "a small cross with its arms terminating in pellets. This may be a mason's mark, but it is strangely like the wellknown Crusaders' marks at Winchelsea".

Holland Walker made no further comment on this cross and the current, although somewhat dated, Guide Book (Peters, 1974) has no mention of any marks. An earlier but undated leaflet (ca. 1930?) also mentions "certain curious little crosses, which if they are not masons' marks, are votive crosses commemorating some vow or pilgrimage", on the same pier. Although he does not seem to have known it, Holland Walker's romanticism of a Crusader's Cross would indeed go well with the now unearthed fact of the Crusader Knight, Sir William Neville, being a sponsor of the new St. Mary's.

Going back a few years, one finds that Gill (1916) has an illustration (right) showing what he noted as being masons' marks from St. Mary's, but without giving any details of their locations within the church. One of those marks was a pelleted cross. G.H. Cook (1954) wrote - "Reminiscent of the early Perpendicular work at Gloucester cathedral are the transepts of the noble church of S.Mary, Nottingham". In the same work, he wrote also - "Curious little designs known as banker's marks are often to be found on the piers in some parish churches. The marks, including the initial letters of names were incised by the men who shaped the stones on the bench or banker...... Masonry was an expensive item in mediaeval building and a mark or an initial letter was a sure means of identifying a craftsman guilty of faulty or scamped work..... On the stone work of many churches appear graffiti that cannot be attributed to masons. In particular there are the so-called votive crosses, said to have been scratched by people about to make a journey who pledged themselves to present a thank-offering to the church on their safe return". Chamberlain (1957) noted that masons' marks, which at one stage were believed to have "mystic purposes", usually are on plain stone or simple carvings and rarely on major sculpture. This he attributed to the fact that major pieces could usually be identified by fellow masons from the quality and style alone.

My search for mason's marks started by locating Holland Walker's "cross" on the South arcade pier. To my surprise at that time, as the figure shows, I found that there are three such crosses close together on the same, west face, of that pier (which I prefer to denote as S1, being in the south aisle and the first to the west of the crossing under the tower). Examining other piers revealed a cross on the east face of pier N1. The crosses are all the same size, are very clearly inscribed, possibly even stamped on, and are of the form known in Christian symbolism as a "button cross" (Liungman, 1991) or "cross pomeé". The latter is a traditional emblem of St. Michael, the Archangel (Harl. ms. 5285, British Museum, has this in red on a silver field). Then, and quite unexpectedly as I was not searching, I came upon another button cross on a section of the moulding above left of the east door from the north transept to the "Chapter House". The moulding itself is a section of a prominent band of concave sill moulding which runs in an essentially unbroken line right around the inside of the walls from the northeast tower pier to the southeast tower pier. Ironically, this particular section survived being removed, cut down in size, and replaced alongside a section of fresh stone (sill cum architrave) when a pair of new doorways out of the north transept were made in 1940. So now the evidence had swung towards the button cross being a mason's mark and not some travellers or Crusaders votive cross.

Over a period of time, my list of button cross locations grew quite remarkably. As the search progressed a range of other marks and graffiti were alighted upon, often with a sighting owing much to the changing natural light patterns in this great house of light as the seasons passed. Of the button crosses more later but one fact seemed clear, they are all on some of the smoothest quality stone in the whole building. A second mason's mark, the "tristar" (my name for it) was located on stone work which clearly shared the characteristics of that with button crosses. Figure 1 maps the horizontal position of the locations of the button crosses and tristars.

Figure 1 - Click thumbnail photos for larger illustrations

The thumbnail photographs provide an indication of the extent of the variation in vertical positions and the forms of masonry now known to have these two ancient marks. For record purposes, a collection of other mason's marks and graffiti are shown in the Appendix (as with the button cross and tristar examples in Figure 1, most of these are "brass-rubbings").

To return to the stonework bearing a button cross or a tristar, and there is never more than one mark on an individual piece of masonry, perhaps the most exciting find was that alongside King Richard's Head. On the right of the ancient and original doorway in the north aisle, leading into what most think was a Chantry House, this sculpture, with its paired Queen on the other door jamb, has to be one of the most important pieces of carving in the whole church. Although slightly damaged, it very closely resembles the paintings, most apparently based on one in Westminster Abbey, of which examples are shown in the Figure.

The original of the lower image is in Henry Holland's Basiliologia of 1618 (reproduced in Du Boulay & Barron, 1971). The crown, the hairstyle and the facial characteristics of the sculpture all match the paintings. The stone bearing the head is a massive single piece which encompasses the whole angle, including the hood moulding and here is a button cross. The sister stone with Queen Anne of Bohemia upon it has no mark.

What is worth noting here is that the hood moulding of the interior of the south porch is identical in form, albeit larger in scale, to that of the old north door. Surprisingly, the previous descriptions, even those of Close (1866) and Gill (1916) do not remark on this similarity, let alone note that there probably were heads on the two angles of the south porch. The evidence comes from the very crudeness of the stone surface, with clear chisel marks where erasure of former embellishment has taken place. The remains of effaced angels on the east walls of both transepts provide further evidence for such brutality in the Reformation or Puritan periods.

The various locations of the button cross and tristar, moreover tell us much about the period of construction of the present building.

In addition to those already described, Figure 1 shows the site of others on the shaft of nave pier N1, the windows in both transepts (mullions and frames), and the large corner stone next to the Smith monument in the south aisle. Those on window frames and mullions are all on masonry which is embellished by a narrowly separated pair of decorative lines. This double line is missing from most, if not all, replacement mullions and frames. The finding, the last for me, of a button cross on the window above left of the 1942 north aisle doorway leading to the Choir vestry, denotes a continuity of building work which embraces the two transepts and both aisles. Even allowing for the extensive replacement of original masonry, especially in the south aisle and south wall of the south transept, it seems a solid conclusion that Gill's (1916) thinking on the termination one bay west of the south porch is correct. The position of that likely western wall is also shown on Figure 1.

The suggestion of a phased building over the earlier church, however, is refuted by the inclusion of the nave pillars (remembering that the tower piers were wholly rebuilt in 1845-8) in the masonry from the bench of no more than two masons working simultaneously. I have not been able to closely examine the clerestory but the key double line decoration can be seen in a few relics of the original frames.

Continue References Return to History Introduction

Compiled by Brian Taylor, published September 2000     

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