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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 88  1973  page 153
 Excavations at Boxley Abbey  By P. J. Tester, F.S.A. continued 

when despatched from their place of origin38  but the Boxley coverstone does not match any known examples from these workshops.
   The rounded base of the cross is possibly derived from the twelfth-century V-foot at Barnack.39  Rounded-type bases-in contrast to stepped-are known from Hinxhill (thirteenth century), Canterbury (thirteenth century) and Chevening (fourteenth century) in Kent, and from East Dean (thirteenth century) and Lewes (fourteenth century) in Sussex. At St. Peter's at Gowts, Lincoln, a slab which K. E. Styan40 dated c. 1300 has developed a pointed trefoil within the outer curve instead of a simple inner curve such as is found on the Boxley sarcen. The cross-head, with its three upper arms splayed out into the edge, is remarkably akin to the Anglo-Saxon period pillow-stones found in the north of England, especially at Hartlepool,41  and to the Clonmacnois crossed slabs. Did the twelfth-century carver of the Boxley coverstone retain memories of seeing such Celtic-influenced crosses on his travels? He was perhaps more affected by the crosses on the silver pennies in his pockets.
   The nearest parallel I have found is in Repps church, near Potter Heigham, Norfolk. This gravestone is not mentioned by Pevsner,42 but Boutell43  has illustrated it and added the comment that it 'probably commemorates the founder of the circular Norman tower of the church's. The Repps slab bears a main design identical to the Boxley example but is embellished with annulets and with kite-shaped shields of Norman type.

APPENDIX II

Agreement between the Abbot and Convent of Boxley and Stephen Lomherst, mason, for rebuilding the cloister, 1373. (Exch. K.R. Accts. 662, no. 46. Translation by A. C. Harrison, B.A., F.S.A., from the Latin text published in L. F. Salzman's Building in England, 1952.)

   'This indenture witnesses what has been this agreed between the Abbot and Convent of Boxley on the one side and Stephen Lomherst of Sutton (Souttune) mason on the other, that is to say that the aforementioned Stephen shall make and faithfully and honourably complete for the same Abbot and Convent the whole of the stonework pertaining to the construction of one new cloister on all sides in their monastery

   38 L. A. S. Butler, Proc. Cambridge Antiq. Soc., i (1956), 96-9; G. Dru Drury, Proc. Dorset N.H.A.S., lxx (1948), 3.
   39  L. A. S. Butler, Arch. Journ., cxxi (1964), 120.
   40  A Short History of Sepulchral Cross-Slabs (1902), P1. F.
   41  W. 0. Collingwood, Northumbrian Crosses of Pre-Norman Age, 1927, 10-13.
   42  The Buildings of England-North-East Norfolk and Norwich.
   43 Christian Monuments in England and Wales, 1854, 18-19.

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