Medieval carved stone cross, site of.


The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1867-8 bears the annotation 'St Catherine's: Sculptured Stones': the map defines the front garden of the dwelling, and three dots mark the sites of the crosses. The grid reference relates to one of the three sites recorded by the OS in 1867-8.


One of the crosses is a gable cross, an architectural fragment rather than a sculpted memorial.


The other two stones are fragments of carved cross slabs (Manx Cross 93 and Manx Cross 141). These were first illustrated by the local artist W Kinnebrook, who produced etchings of them in 1841, at which time he recorded them as being in 'Mrs Quane's garden in the village of Onchan.' The stones were later reported to form part of a rockery, which may be the reason for their position recorded by the OS.


There is no indication, either in the form of other archaeological remains or local tradition, to explain how the stones came to be at St Catherine's.


By 1892, two of the crosses had recently been moved to the garden of Hawthorn Villa (the 1867-8 OS map shows this property to be at SC3999278337: it is now the local authority office), and were there seen in the course of an excursion by the IoM Natural History and Antiquarian Society; the excursion account states that they had since been moved to the parish church, where they are displayed today.