Phillip's Cross (Rochester and Byrness)
(NT 74550670) Phillip's Cross (Cairn) (NAT). (1)
According to Bowes and Ellerker's Survey of 1542 Phillip's Cross stood on the Border line between the heads of the streams Spithope and Ramshope. Inferentially, it was thus located on a track or drove road leading from Upper Oxnam which, after crossing the Long Burn, entered England by surmounting the western shoulder of Catcleugh Hill - a location which agrees with Armstrong's series of Border-line points of 1769.
The Ordnance Survey have identified the site of Phillip's Cross with that of a cairn which stands close by this track about 150 yards after its crossing into England; but the early surveys lead us to infer that the cross stood on the actual boundary. However this may be, the cross has long since disappeared; the cairn, whether old or modern, remains. (2)
The present Phillip's Cross is a modern cairn, 2m diameter at the base and 1.2m high. The boundary in the vicinity of Catcleugh Hill was perambulated, but no trace of a medieval wayside cross was found. (3)
Phillip's Cross served as a boundary marker. (4)
According to Bowes and Ellerker's Survey of 1542 Phillip's Cross stood on the Border line between the heads of the streams Spithope and Ramshope. Inferentially, it was thus located on a track or drove road leading from Upper Oxnam which, after crossing the Long Burn, entered England by surmounting the western shoulder of Catcleugh Hill - a location which agrees with Armstrong's series of Border-line points of 1769.
The Ordnance Survey have identified the site of Phillip's Cross with that of a cairn which stands close by this track about 150 yards after its crossing into England; but the early surveys lead us to infer that the cross stood on the actual boundary. However this may be, the cross has long since disappeared; the cairn, whether old or modern, remains. (2)
The present Phillip's Cross is a modern cairn, 2m diameter at the base and 1.2m high. The boundary in the vicinity of Catcleugh Hill was perambulated, but no trace of a medieval wayside cross was found. (3)
Phillip's Cross served as a boundary marker. (4)
N10
FIELD OBSERVATION, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigation 1970; D Smith
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