15th-century preaching cross in the churchyard at Derwen, Denbighshire. Credit: Janet & Colin Bord/Fortean Picture Library / Topfoto the cross was the focus of open-air sermons by travelling friars and other visiting preachers Its carved octagonal shaft supports a box-like head with canopied figures: the Crucifixion on the west side (facing away from the church); a battered Virgin and Child o the south; the Coronation of the Virgin to the east: and on the north side a fine figure of St. Michael the Archangel, with raised sword and scales of weighing souls