A detailed blogpost on the Netherton Cross is in the pipeline but, for the moment, here are three photographs to introduce the cross to those of you who haven’t seen it before.
Briefly, this free-standing sandstone cross is a product of the ‘Govan School’ – the stonecarving style of the Strathclyde Britons – in an outlying district 12 miles from the main sculptural centre at Govan. The low-quality carving and lack of intricacy suggest that it belongs to the later phase of the style, when the standard of craftsmanship was waning. A date of c.1050, around the time when the Strathclyde Britons lost their independence, would probably not be wide of the mark.
The cross formerly stood beside the River Clyde but is now in the grounds of the new parish church at Hamilton. Devotees of ‘Dark Age’ Celtic sculpture could quite easily walk past this enigmatic monument without being aware of what it is. On one side it has a central boss, flanked by two triangular shapes, above an interlace pattern; the other side shows a crudely carved human figure above a central boss which has two pairs of snakes uncoiling from it. Other patterns are difficult to make out but were identified in Victorian times and noted in antiquarian literature. I’ll describe all the carvings more fully at some point.
Although rather simple and unsophisticated, the Netherton Cross is one of my favourite examples of Strathclyde sculpture. It’s a hefty piece, with a weight and bulk that give it an impressive aura. This and the older example from Barochan are the only two free-standing crosses of the Govan School that still remain intact.
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The three photographs are copyright © B Keeling. Two of them appear in my book The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland.
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Alan MacQuarrie seemed rather disapointed by it!
Yes, that’s certainly true…
“One hesitates to say anything about the Netherton cross…… It must be the most disappointing of all the monuments….”
(Macquarrie, Govan Lecture 2005)
I have carried out many years of research concerning the context of this cross and other nearby secular monuments, and sufficed to say, that whilst I am not at the stage where any of the vulnerable research can be posted online, I can assure you with some confidence, that when I eventually publish on the subject of this monument and the wider region, Dr MacQuarrie (whom I deeply admire) will have wished he did not say that a hundred times over! My disappointment is that such an important monument is left out there crumbling before its importance is realised.