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three arches ; the fourth side, on the south, is open, apparently to 
admit the preacher, but originally a central shaft existed, and 
consequently after the preacher had with some difficulty, especially 
if he had short legs, mounted his rostrum, he would have found 
still greater difficulty in preventing himself from colliding un- 
pleasantly with the central shaft, especially if in the midst of a 
florid address he forgot his surroundings for a moment. But if 
not a preaching cross, what was it? The beauty of its design 
was indisputable. The eight shields which surround the base- 
ment of the top tier were explained by the Rector—four have 
emblems of the Passion carved in relief, two are blank, two (one 
on the north and one on the south side) are armorial, with the 
arms of the Lord of the Manor and his wife at the period of the 
erection of the cross, temp. Henry VI. Entering the Church by 
the north porce, a portion of Transition work in the doorway was 
pointed out as the only remnant of early work in the Church. 
The chief interest inside is centred in the monuments of the Poyntz 
family, who from very early times held the Manor of Iron Acton. 
Mr. Thompson, the rector, in an elaborate paper in the Proceed- 
ings of the Gloucestershire Society on the Poyntz family, writes 
that the Manor came into the possession of the Actons soon after 
the Norman Conquest, and descended through several generations 
to Sir John Acton, who died without issue in 1344. His estate 
then passed to his cousin Maud, the second wife of Sir Nicholas 
Poyntz. This latter family then held the Manor from 1344 till 
the death of Sir John Poyntz, 1680. The three slabs in the 
Church, marking the graves of Sir Robert Poyntz, who died 1439, 
and of his two wives, were shown. It was this Poyntz the 
Rector considered to be the builder of the fair cross. Round his 
slab was an inscription stating that ‘“‘ thys stepyl (he) here maked.” 
The question was, could the word steeple be applied to the cross, 
or was it applicable only to the tower? The latter being the 
generally accepted view, a very moot point now arose, could any 
portion of the tower be put down to that date? Rector, architect, 
