Although the symbol itself is a pre-christian one, to most of us it means that dreadfully boring religious crap we’ve had to contend with since childhood. But relics of old stone crosses, which scatter Britain in huge numbers, relate to periods in our history when the xtian ways were damning the ways of our indigenous ancestors – sometimes with frightening furore: burning, hanging and torturing British people for not accepting their screwy ways. The stone crosses which we find today as archaeological relics, tended to be positioned where earlier heathen sites were found – and as a result of this, I thought it important to include such sites on TNA. But these relics took various forms, each relating to the function of the site it meant to supplant or suppress: market crosses, boundary crosses, village crosses, wayside crosses, etc. You’ll find them all here!
Cross (destroyed): OS Grid-Reference – SE 3224 4498
Archaeology & History
A Charter in the time of King John allowed for markets to be held in Harewood from 1209 CE onwards, “on the first day of July and the two following days, and also to hold one market there every week on the Monday.” But whether or not a market cross was erected that far back, we don’t quite know. Certainly, the edifice illustrated by John Jones (1859) in his standard work on Harewood didn’t date from such an early period! It stood close to the old road junction to Wetherby in old Harewood village, “a little below the intersection of the roads, and about fifty yards higher up than the market house.” Jones told us:
Harewood Cross (Jones 1859)
“It stood upon a large stone pedestal, and was approached by a quadrangular flight of seven steps, very broad, where the neighbouring farmers used to stand, and dispose of their butter, fowls, eggs, &c. It was re-erected, AD 1703, by John Boulter, Esq., and in the year 1804, when the road was lowered, it was taken down and destroyed. This is to be regretted, it might have been re-erected in another situation, if that was inconvenient, and would have been in the present day, not only an ornament to the village but a relic of the past, of which the villagers might have been justly proud. On the top of this cross there was a knur and spell, a game for which the village was celebrated in old times, while close to the toll booth there was a strong iron ring fastened to a large stone, where the villagers used to enjoy the barbarous amusement of bull baiting.”
References:
Bogg, Edmund, Lower Wharfeland, J. Sampson: York 1904.
Jones, John, The History and Antiquities of Harewood, Simpkin Marshall: London 1859.
Speight, Harry, Lower Wharfedale, Elliott Stock: London 1902.
This long-lost stone cross should not be confused with the more recent one, erected by one Mr H. C. Richards in 1901 to commemorate some malarky about Edward VII. The one in this profile was much older than that, although both of them were erected close to each other. The older cross was found, said T.H. Cole (1884), “at the head of the Town, near All Saints’ Church.” Also known as the North End’s Cross, the old market was held here and close by were the gallows, the whipping post and the stocks.
In John Bridges’ (1791) account of the parish of Aynho, he made mention of an old market cross that stood in the village, but even in his day it had been removed and so we know little about it. Chris Markham (1901) included it in his inventory of crosses, but could find no additional details to those provided by Mr Bridges. He told us:
“In the seventeenth year of Edward II (1323-4) John de Clavering was lord of the manor of Eynho, and obtained the King’s charter for a weekly mercate, or market, to be held every Tuesday, and a yearly fair on the vigil and day of St. Michael and two days following. This market was continued until the twentieth year of James I (1622-3), when Richard Cartwright obtained a new charter for holding the market and fair, with the addition of another yearly fair on the Monday and Tuesday after Pentecost. Bridges, however, writing about 1700, says that the market had been discontinued for some sixty years, and that the market cross had been then long since taken down. Since then the fairs have also sunk into desuetude.”
References:
Bridges, John, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire – volume 1, T. Payne: Oxford 1791.
Charles Pooley (1868) gave a somewhat vague description of this site, telling that, “there is authority for believing that at one time a Cross was set up in the village.” I can find no other reference to this monument which, I presume, has been destroyed. (the grid reference cited is an approximation near the centre of the village, where village crosses were usually located)
References:
Pooley, Charles, Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, Longmans Green: London 1868.
Cross (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SO 9674 1321
Archaeology & History
High Cross on 1883 map
First shown on a 1775 map of the region, this long-lost site is preserved in several place-names near the old crossroads a half-mile north of Elkstone village. It is mentioned, albeit briefly in Charles Pooley (1868) county survey, where he told that, “in former times a very handsome and lofty High Cross stood in this parish.” However, there’s the possibility that the name ‘High’ cross may here derive simply from a cross located at a high point in the landscape.
An old ‘Guide Post’ marked on the early Ordnance Survey map at the same spot has been suggested by Danny Sullivan—and not without good reason—to be a prehistoric standing stone. He may be right.
References:
Pooley, Charles, Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, Longmans Green: London 1868.
Sullivan, D.P., Old Stones of the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, Reardon: Cheltenham 1999.
In days of olde, Charles Pooley (1868) told us that “an old cross formerly stood in the Market-place” in the centre of the town where the old crossroads meet—as was customary for crosses and maypoles—just outside the church of St. Lawrence. Pyramidal in form, it was mentioned in an old manuscript cited by Adin Williams (1888), which told us,
“Leland saith that in his days there was a Piramid of Stone at ye west end of ye Church, whose foundations are to be seen near Slaughter’s Well, which is said to be medicinal water.”
And although we don’t know when the cross was erected, we know when it was destroyed. Williams again tells us:
“About 1770, Sir Jacob Wheate pulled down this cross. He is said to have taken the stones to the house he was building.”
References:
Pooley, Charles, Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, Longmans Green: London 1868.
Williams, Adin, Lechlade: Being the History of the Town, Manor and Estates, The Priory and the Church, E.W. Savory: Cirencester 1888.
In Charles Pooley’s (1868) definitive account of Gloucestershire county crosses, he informs us that,
“there was formerly a Cross erected in this village, but it has long since disappeared.”
He gives no further information about its history, but we must surmise that it was either associated with the ancient priory on the north side of the village, or in the traditional place at the centre of the the village. The grid-reference cited places the lost cross in the grounds of the priory.
References:
Pooley, Charles, Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, Longmans Green: London 1868.
In Charles Pooley’s (1868) definitive history on the county crosses, this monument is mentioned in passing without any known history, apart form it been destroyed sometime in the early 19th century:
“A cross formerly stood in the churchyard, but it has been removed within living memory.”
References:
Pooley, Charles, Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, Longmans Green: London 1868.
Cross (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SY 5167 9622
Archaeology & History
This old cross was almost lost to history, but thanks to personal notes written by one John Banger Russell in 1780, we’ve been left with a description of the monument, which Alfred Pope (1906) published in his survey:
“In the middle of this parish are the remains of a large cross, which has been much injured by time. The shaft, which seems to have been of considerable height, has been taken down, tho’ the base or pediment still continues in its proper place. The ascent was by four steps but the whole is very ruinous.”
Nearly a hundred years later in the hugely updated magnum opus of John Hutchins (1863), the site had long gone:
“A mutilated cross which stood in the centre of the village at the beginning of the present century, has since been destroyed.”
References:
Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset – volume 2, Bowyer & Nichols: London (3rd edition) 1863.
Pope, Alfred, The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset, Chiswick Press: London 1906.
