Ilkley Saxon Cross-Shafts used to stand in the churchyard.
OS Grid Reference: SE 1163 4782. All Saints parish church is located on Church Street (the A65) in the centre of Ilkley, west Yorkshire, near the River Wharfe, and housed within are three Anglo-Saxon cross-shafts. Originally these ancient crosses had stood at the side of the church in the churchyard, but due to the ever-increasing fears of erosion they had to be brought inside the church. The church site is an ancient one, dating from the 8th century, but the present building is a restoration of 1860; the church here stands on the site of a Roman fort (Olicana) and there are re-used Roman altar stones in the fabric. The crosses are referred to as ‘Paulinus Crosses’, but they are probably of a later date than St Paulinus, perhaps from the 8th-11th centuries, and though many of the carvings are now very eroded, they are still quite magnificent to look at. The following is…
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