Last updated at 15:30, Monday, 25 June 2012

OPINION is divided about how best to preserve ancient West Cumbrian sculptures for future generations to see and enjoy.

INDOORS: Hogback tombstones in Gosforth church which would once have been outside facing the elements SUBMITTED

A debate about when it might be appropriate to move 1,000-year-old stone crosses or tombs indoors for protection was held as part of a day of lectures at Lancaster University devoted to the memory of Ben Edwards.

Mr Edwards, the first county archaeologist for Lancashire, died last year, and many friends, colleagues and family members attended the event organised by the Centre for North West Regional Studies and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society.

Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp, of Durham University, sparked the debate about the deteriorating condition of some pre-Norman Conquest relics in her talk on Cumbria’s West Coast Crosses revisited.

Some, like the 9th century Beckermet cross had inscriptions which had defied translation.

The tall, slender monuments were designed to impress and would have been painted and could even have been decorated with metalwork.

She said: “You have to remember that all these crosses were coloured.”

She ended her talk by saying: “In Cumbria we are very lucky that we have crosses which are still standing in their original position.”

This view was challenged during a question-and-answer session when a member of the audience described how much detail had been lost to weathering on the Gosforth cross in the past 20 years.

Professor Cramp replied that it was possible to make replicas and bring the original sculptures into churches or museums but the object would lose a great deal from being divorced from its original spot.

She said: “We haven’t got a good conservation method yet, except to keep them clean.

“I would hate for them all to go inside but they do need a little TLC.”

If many stone crosses went inside churches it would also create difficulties in people being able to see them.

She said: “Churches are closing doors and we can’t get in to see them.

“Access to these things is again important.”

First published at 10:37, Saturday, 23 June 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk