CoralJackz – That History Couple

The Carew Cross is an 11th century carved stone that today stands in the grounds of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It stands at around 4 metres tall and is richly decorated with intricate patterns of interlacing knotwork, spirals and geometric motifs.

The stone is thought to have been carved to commemorate Maredudd ab Edwin, who was a King of Deheubarth and died in 1035. A latin inscription on the stone reads “MARGIT EUT REX ETG [uin] FILIUS”, which his interpreted as “Maredudd, son of Edwin”.

Below images from Archaeologia Cambrensis 1899 – https://journals.library.wales/view/2919943/3012040/33#?xywh=-1543%2C430%2C5134%2C3551

According to Coflein, the stone is known to have been moved at least twice since its construction- “immediately following its being placed in state care in 1923, and again during the Second World War, when it was temporarily dismantled and stored in order to ensure its preservation.” – https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/103458/

It is similar to the cross in the churchyard at Nevern and it has been suggested that they were made at the same monastery workshop and have a similar date. – https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n8Oj3p_wUmsC&dq=nevern+cross&pg=PA216&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=nevern%20cross&f=false

From a Historical Tour Through Pembrokeshire (1810) by Richard Fenton:
“Exactly opposite to the entrance into the lawn or paddock before the castle, just without the wall, and on the roadside leading to Carew church and village, stands one of the early crosses richly ornamented with truelove knots, & having on a small compartment near the centre an inscription, which, though often copied, and at different times submitted to the examination of the curious, and I believe to the Antiquarian Society by the late Dr. Lort, had never been yet decyphered, so as to lead to any discovery of its origin or date of its erection.”- https://archive.org/details/b22013179/page/n305/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=carew