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Summary

Cross at Childe's Tomb erected on top of the cist on the summit of Childe's Tomb cairn

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SW31
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443322
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SW/55
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX67SW31

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CROSS (Constructed, XIV to Edwardian - 1400 AD? (Between) to 1910 AD (Between))

Full description

Carrington, N. T., 1826, Dartmoor, a descriptive poem, vignette (Unknown). SDV268135.

Crossing, W., 1887, Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, 60-1 (Monograph). SDV261792.

Crossing, W., 1902, The Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor, 88-95 (Monograph). SDV178385.

Breton, H. H., 1912, Beautiful Dartmoor III. Southern Quarter, 19-20 (Monograph). SDV250997.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 108-9 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Masson Phillips, E. N., 1937, The Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon: Part I, 309-10 (Article in Serial). SDV240502.

Childe's Tomb cross, on the moor near Fox Tor, about 4.8 kilometres south-east of Princetown, 2.5 kilometres east of Siward's Cross. Type A. At the present time Childe's Tomb (restored) consists of a kistvaen surrounded by the remains of a retaining circle and surmounted by a rough pedestal bearing a small modern cross of rectangular section erected in a square socket-stone with a chamfered top edge. Originally the kist was covered by a pedestal of three square steps (of which the present stones are the remains) on which stood the ancient socket-stone bearing a cross of rectangular section. This broken socket-stone lies on the moor close by. Square at the base and becomes octagonal above, by the corners being chamfered off. The top edge of the octagonal upper surface is also chamfered. The socket hole is rectangular. One side of the socket-stone is broken away.

Finberg, H. P. R., 1946, Childe's tomb, 265-80 (Article in Serial). SDV259009.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 4389 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX67SW31 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV261849.

(15/06/1950) Cist is visible. The actual kistvaen itself is not accessible, the pedestal of the above described stone cross completely covering the same.
Childe's Tomb cross on cairn and cist at SX 62577029.
A cross, standing in this vicinity in the 17th century could not be found by Crossing. The present cross was erected about 1910. It is said to now include some original material and stands in its original position. The cross is erected in a square socket stone on a rough pedestal with chamfered top edges. A broken socket stone lies close by. The cross allegedly commemorates Childe, a local folk lore character who supposedly froze to death on the moors in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377). ("Childe" is now inexplicably ascribed to the cist).

Hoskins, W.G. + Finberg, H.P.R., 1952, Devonshire Studies, 40-58 (Monograph). SDV351522.

Brown, T., 1954, The Dartmoor Legend of Mr Child (Monograph). SDV268143.

Fox, A., 1969, Swincombe Survey, 48, 9 (Report - Survey). SDV250998.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX67SW31 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV268136.

(12/08/1977) The remains of a cairn containing a cist, known as Childe's Tomb, situated on a north-facing slope west of the River Swincombe at 365.0m OD. A restored cross, set in a socket stone, has been mounted on a pedestal, over the cist. See photograph.
The cairn averages 9.5m in diameter and 0.4m high and is encompassed by a kerb circle. The cist measures 1.4m by 0.5m internally. The broken socket stone referred to by Masson Phillips could not be seen.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 153 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Cairn, diameter 9.0 metres, height 0.3 metres with modern retaining circle 5.4 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres high; central cist placed south-east by north-west. Crossing says "the stones appear to have been artificially shaped, the kistvaen not being of such rude construction as the examples generally found. On this account it would appear to be of less antiquity, though in plan precisely similar". The site is crowned by a modern cross on a large plinth. Monument restored by the Dartmoor Preservation Association in around 1890 (20/9/1975).

Starkey, F. H., 1983, Dartmoor Crosses and Some Ancient Tracks, 36-7 (Monograph). SDV345128.

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 344, 359-61 (Monograph). SDV249702.

Masson Phillips, E. N., 1984, Supplementary Notes on the Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon (Seventh Paper), 144-145 (Article in Serial). SDV345276.

If Childe was the 11th century Ordulf II of Tavistock (Citing Finberg) then the cross was a posthumous memorial and the "tomb" was in fact a cenotaph.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(08/06/1988) SX 62577029. A much disturbed cairn, 9m in diameter and 0.3m high with a modern 'kerb' of blocks and slabs, 5.8m in diameter and 0.5m high, set upon the mound. At the centre is a well built cist 1.4m long, 0.5m wide and 0.6m deep. Over this is a two tier pedestal of eight well trimmed blocks, of three different lengths; a further half buried block lies S of the monument. Upon this is a replacement socket stone and cross, cut at Holne in 1885 (Hemery, 1983), with a total height of 1.4m. Near a large block, 5m E of the cairn, is the broken socket stone of the original cross.
It has been suggested by Crossing (1887) and by some recent writers that the head of the original cross on Childe's Tomb might be that which for a time, lay at the foot of the standing cross in Fox Tor Newtake. It later disappeared but photographs show it to have been of the usual Dartmoor type of roughly rectangular section, and consequently of an earlier period then the surviving fragment of the original socket-stone which lies near the restored monument. This indicates that the missing cross from Childe's Tomb would have been of octagonal section. If, as Finberg (1946) has shown, Childe was the 11th century Ordulf II of Tavistock, then the cross was a postumous, not a contemporary, memorial and the so-called tomb was in fact a cenotaph.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 218-20, Map 64, Figure 64.2 (Monograph). SDV337765.

The cairn known as 'Childe's Tomb' has been 'Christianised' by the addition of a cross to its summit. It stands in line with other crosses to the east and west once marking the ancient 'Monks Path' across this part of the moor. The cross stood undisturbed until about 1812 when the stones were appropriated for use as door stops and a bridge for Fox Tor farm. The cross itself has disappeared and its present replacement was manufactured in 1885 and clumsily perched over the cist.

English Heritage, 2005, Survey Information (miscellaneous date) (Report - Survey). SDV345855.

Cross shown on survey slightly to the south-west at SX62497028.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

'Childe's Tomb (remains of) Cross on (Cairn and Cist)' depicted on the modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8630 - Fox Tor Newtake Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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