| Parish/District | Burwell/East Lindsey |
| Location | Market cross building beside the Ai6 in the centre of Burwell village |
| Category | Market cross (building) |
| National Grid Ref | TF 35502 79598 |
| Designation | Listed II |
| Stone type | Brick built market hall |
| Refs | Pevsner, Lincolnshire, p.202; |
| Visits |
Burwell Butter Cross is the only example of a market cross building surviving in Lincolnshire.
Burwell was first granted a market charter in 1230 and there may well have been a traditional market cross on this site in medieval times. The present Butter Cross building is said (in the listing) to date from c.1700. The original market building was a red-brick octagonal structure with open semi-circular arches on each elevation, the arches surmounted by brick pediments. There was presumably a roof during its market hall function – of unknown type, but the brick pediments seem too grand for thatch?
The building’s next recorded use was as a dovecote and it is thus depicted in a drawing by J C Nattes dated 1790 (see below). This shows an upward extension capped with a conical slate roof on denticular brick eaves topped with a plain octagonal cupola. The brick pediments w ere retained, and may have helped serve as rat ledges. This is clearly when the arched openings were bricked in with doorways and utility openings provided as required.
Sometime around 1883, the then owner of the Butter Cross – the Grantham industrialist William Hornsby of Burwell Hall – had the building remodeled and reroofed. The roof was lowered (if Nattes is thought accurate) and re-covered with a conical slate roof set on chevroned brick eaves and topped with a similar octagonal cupola. It is said that Hornsby funded these repairs and alterations so that the Primitive Methodists could hold their services in the building. The Methodists appear to have rented the building for use as a chapel until 1914 and it is presumed that the two fireplaces and the semi-circular headed windows were fitted for the chapel conversion.
During the earlier 20th century, Burwell Butter Cross was used as the Village Hall and on 8 September 1958, the building was formally gifted to the parish council by Mildred Beatrice Dennis of Frampton Hall. A plaque inside the building commemorates this event.
In the later 20th century its use as a public facility diminished and the building was offered for sale – since then, several organisations and individuals have owned the building but its Grade II listing, its difficulties of access and lack of services/facilities mean that it has yet to find a suitable new use. A recent estate agent’s leaflet detailing its many charms can be downloaded here.
