About Pugin > Churchyard Crosses

Introduction

Pugin’s views on ‘what is to be regarded as forming a complete Catholic parish church for the due celebration of the divine office and the administration of the sacraments, both as regards architectural arrangement and furniture’ were comprehensively set out in his 1843 book The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England. The material had previously been published anonymously, its authorship thinly disguised, in the May 1841 and February 1842 issues of the Dublin Review.

After noting that the enclosure within which medieval churches stood ‘was set apart by solemn consecration for the burial of the faithful’, he observed: ‘It was customary to erect a stone cross, raised on steps, on the south-western side of the church, to mark the hallowed ground.’ Such was Pugin’s own practice in England and Australia.

We present here a selection of his churchyard crosses, from the simple at St Austin of England's, Kenilworth, to the magnificently elaborate at St Giles', Cheadle.

St Patrick's Church, Colebrook, Tasmania

St Austin of England's Church, Kenilworth, Warwickshire

St John's Hospital Chapel, Alton, Staffordshire

St Giles' Church, Cheadle, Staffordshire

Convent of Mercy, Handsworth, Birmingham

St John the Evangelist's Church, Kirkham, Lancashire

Note that the cross itself, atop the shaft, is not original.