Picts Cross Stone, Sellack, Herefordshire

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SO 5607 2669

Archaeology & History

In September, 1928, the old ley-hunter Alfred Watkins was out on one of his many rambles when he “saw a tall stone almost buried in the bank at this crossroads,” appropriately known as Picts Cross, about a mile south of Sellack — so he called it the ‘Picts Cross Stone.’  He also said,

“It was Pricker’s and Prick’s Cross in 18th century maps, and Pig’s Cross in the 1832 Ord. Map. Now ‘pig’ is the present Welsh word for “a peak, a point, a pike.””

And a lovely pointy old stone it looks in his old photo!  The monolith is in the hedgerow along the old boundary line.

References:

1. Watkins, Alfred, The Old Standing Crosses of Herefordshire, Simpkin Marshall: London 1930.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian