Five Crosses in the Niche

In the west wall of the Cathedral's Holy Trinity Chapel is a niche that currently houses the glass flasks of Chrism oils. It has in it five distinctive crosses that are in the transitional style of a mix of circular Celtic Christian crosses and the right angled Latin cross of the cruxifiction that is more familiar to us today. These crosses are very well preserved. This is probably because they were covered up some time in the early or mid sixteenth century as part of the Reformation changes. They remained hidden until Gilbert Scott's team rediscovered them during their 1863 restoration works.

Gilbert Scott wrote excitedly to his friend and architect colleague E.A.Freeman about the find. In his letter he sketched the crosses that had been found. The find was also written up in the authoritative journal Archaeologica Cambrensis, which included a plate of the crosses.

The brief Talk today will recall that find and compare the 19th century images with the actual crosses.