St. Mary's History - Article - St. Mary's Nottingham, Masons' Marks and Graffiti

A History of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Nottingham

Mason's Marks and Graffiti recorded by Brian Taylor

These were sighted by me while searching for the "votive crosses" and are catalogued here for any who might be interested. Nave pillars, or piers, are numbered east to west.

My search started with locating Holland Walker's "cross" on the South Nave arcade pier S1. To my surprise, I found that there are three such crosses close together on the same, west face, of that pier. 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). Later in my background research, I came across the illustration by Harry Gill (1916, right).

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.

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. 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, others are:- high on the shaft of nave pier N1; on the windows in both transepts (mullions and frames); on another roll moulding section in the north wall of the north transept; on the right door frame of the North aisle tower entrance; and, on 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, including the nave pillars.

Figure 1 maps the horizontal position of the locations of the button crosses and tristars.

Figure 1 - Click thumbnail photos for larger illustrations

{short description of image}

Simple Marks

Most were "captured" using the "brass-rubbing" technique (some mainly initials being transformed to an "embossed" form), the others are shown as drawings.

Nave pillar S1, W. face, cross pomeé
Nave pillar N1, E. face, cross pomeé
Inside left of N. transept tomb, cross pomeé
N. transept/N.aisle junction, S. face, cross pomeé
N. transept, E. wall, "tristar"
N. aisle, r. of tower door, "tristar"
Various locations, drawings

Initials found carved into stones

Nave pillar S3, west face
Nave pillar S2, east face
Nave pillar N1, east face
Samon Tomb
Samon Tomb
Samon Tomb
Samon Tomb
North transept, west wall
N. transept/N. aisle junction, cross higher to right
Nave pillar N4, on S. face of arch