Medieval Cross Slab Grave Covers in St Cuthbert's Church, Elsdon

Elsdon church is a complex fabric with evidence of extensive later medieval rebuilding, some of it  perhaps occasioned by damage around the time of the nearby battle of Otterburn in 1388; the quadrant vaults over nave and transept aisles are particularly noteworthy. There are a number of cross slabs, most of which have been re-used in the fabric:

Intact slab of brown sandstone now forming the inner lintel of the south door. Cross head with expanded five-lobed terminals, carved in relief within a sunk circle. Remainder of design incised; stepped calvary base and pair of shears on 1. of shaft.

Intact but very worn slab of brown sandstone alongside (1). Incised design, the only visible parts of which are one transverse arm of the cross head with a fleur-de-lys terminal (14th century?) and the pommel of a sword on the r. of the shaft.

Intact small slab of fawn sandstone built into the internal face of the east wall of the south transept. Plain Greek cross with sunk circle around head, 2-step calvary base, sword on r. of shaft. The design here is so simple as to be little help in dating; it might be as early as the 12th century, although not necessarily so.

In the same wall as (5), the upper part of a slab of yellowish sandstone, with some reddening, as if burned. Similar design to (3), except that the cross head, with sunken panels between the arms, is enclosed in an incised circle, and the sword is placed on the 1. of the cross shaft.

Small brown sandstone slab forming the western part of the plinth of the central pier of the south arcade. Incised cross shaft, the very top of a triangular (?) base and possible traces of the cross head, largely tooled away.

Slab of orange sandstone (but still bearing the remains of an old coat of whitewash) re-used edge-on as the internal lintel of the west window of the south aisle. Incised design. Cross shaft rising from semicircular-arched base, and some faint traces of what may be part of the head. Perhaps 14th century. Not dateable.

Complete slab standing against the north wall of the north transept. Fine-grained yellowish sandstone, relief design. Cross crosslet head, multi-stepped calvary base, sword on r. of shaft. 14th or 15th century.

Complete slab standing against north wall of north transept. Limestone, relief design. Greek cross with head deliberately tooled away, rising from arched base. Sword on 1. of shaft, shield on r. with some sort of animal (deer?) above. 14th or 15th century.

Beside (8), another limestone slab, this time with an incised design, rathe badly decayed. There is no cross; on the l. of the slab is a sword, in the centre an arrow, and on the r what may be a second broader-bladed sword on the r. Undatable.

A fragment built into the internal face of tie east wall of the north transept, 1 m. above floor level and 1.5 m. from the north end of the wall. Fine-grained grey sandstone, incised design. Possibly part of a cross base with a semicircular mount?

Roughly-finished brown sandstone slab now forming the internal sill of the low-side window on the south side of the chancel. The only visible piece of carving is an incised pair of shears; slabs such as this and (9), bearing conventional cross slab emblems without an actual cross, are not uncommon in Northumberland.

Brown sandstone slab re-used as the internal lintel of the window in the south aisle on the east side of the porch. Incised design, partly erased by a later re-tooling. Cross with broad shaft and crude stepped base; the head is indistinct, but may have been of some sort of four-circle form. Sword on r. of shaft.

The upper part of an orange sandstone slab which until c 1997 had been re-used above a ground-floor window on the west side of the 18th century part of Elsdon Tower (the former rectory).  Bracelet-derivative cross within circle, with sunk panel at centre; shears on l. of shaft. Late 12th or 13th century. Removed when alterations were being made, and kept in the house.

Hodges in his notebook comments that the heads of all the square-headed windows on the south of the nave and chancel are re-used slabs, but that these are either plain or had been 'tooled over and nearly obliterated' during the earlier 19th century restoration. .

In addition to the cross slabs, there is a fourth monument standing upright against the north wall of the north transept. This bears a rather crudely incised effigy, along with traces of a marginal inscription.

Two well-preserved medieval coffins are currently stood upright against the external face of the west end of the church.