Scheduled Monument: Anglian high cross in the churchyard of St Peter's Church (1008828)

The monument is a probable ninth century high cross located immediately south of St Peter's Church. It comprises a rectangular section gritstone shaft set into a modern socle or socket stone. Originally a cross head would have surmounted the shaft but this is now missing. The shaft is c.2.5m tall by 42cm wide north-south by 26cm east-west and has been broken and pieced back together. It's original location is not known but it is common for early medieval crosses in Derbyshire to have been located south of a church. The shaft tapers towards the top and is also slightly tapered near the base. Flat-band mouldings line its angles, ending in small plinths at the base. These mouldings, which are broken in places, frame panels of carved ornamentation. The west face of the cross includes three panels separated by flat-band mouldings. The topmost contains interlace decoration, the bottom one a circular `Celtic' style of interlace, and the centre one a pair of figures in a rectangular frame. The figures are too faint to identify. The east face has five panels, the topmost containing interlace while the next one down contains a possible crucifixion scene comprising two figures on either side of an eroded vertical object which may be a cross or a tree. The middle panel contains more `Celtic' interlace and the two lower panels each contain a stylised leaf or flower, more or less identical but for the angle at which each is set and comprising a single stalk with five petals or leafsegments. The north and south faces each have a small upper panel, accounting for about a quarter of the shaft, with a larger panel below which, in both cases, contains interlace decoration. On the south face the upper panel contains interlace of a different form while, on the north face, it contains floral decoration comprising berries and curling leaves. This design indicates that, although the cross includes elements suggestive of Viking influence, it is probably a late example of a native Anglian cross rather than a true Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid. The cross is also Listed Grade II. A number of graves falling within the area of scheduling, together with the surface of the adjacent path, are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath them is included.