| Parish/District | Thorney/Peterborough |
| Location | Relocated in a grassed area alongside the B1040 adjacent to St Vincent’s Farm |
| Category | Boundary Cross (Wayside Cross) |
| National Grid Ref | Now at TF 25926 07785 (listed at TF 25832 07516) |
| Designation | Listed / Scheduled |
| Stone Type | Not known |
| Refs | Fenland Past & Present, 1878, Ch. III, pp. 73-76; Canham, A S, 1887 Fenland Notes and Queries vol II; A. S. Canham, A S,1890, J Brit Arch Assoc, 47 pp.116-129; Healey, Hilary, 1993, ‘Rolling Stones’ in Lincs Past & Present No 10/11 Spring 1993 p.22-3 |
| Visits | DS/HH: 17 Jan 2006 |
Here is a cross of no fixed abode . . . and with an identity problem! What we presently know as St Vincent’s Cross has also been called Kenulph’s Cross and Turketel’s Cross. It is situated just outside the Lincolnshire country boundary (now Peterborough District). The cross stood in a tiny, fenced enclosure in an arable field until 1991, when it was moved to a small, grassed area by the roadside some 250m to the north. An engraved stone on the roadside near its original location records this move. Presumably this was done for reasons of agricultural efficiency (and the new location is very pleasant) but nevertheless, it all seems odd, although none of these locations are original if the report of its recovery from the Cat’s Water drain c.1750 are to be believed
The Peterborough HER gives the following information: St Vincent’s Cross. Formerly named after Abbot Turketel, erected after a Commission of 1390 to mark the boundary of Crowland Abbey lands. It was lost for some time and c.1750 retrieved from Cats Water and re-erected. … A square base and a tapering octagonal shaft in four sections, the bottom one with shields connected with Crowland Abbey. About 3,65m high. Stands at the edge of a field surrounded by a fence. The cross itself is said to be in Crowland Abbey.
Everson and Stocker comment on this cross and suggest it may be 15th C.
This is a particularly fine cross with a quadrangular base with carved shields – two are clearly of 3 whips and 3 knives, the symbols of Crowland Abbey, and another is a crosslet.
It is worth noting that there is another cross adjacent to Cat’s Water drain and very close to St Vincent’s (at TF 25560699). This is the Singlesole or Fynset Cross which is said to mark the place of the Abbot of Peterborough’s Hundred Court. The name Fynset is quite probably a corruption of ‘Vincent’ so there may be some ‘cross fertilisation’ going on here! Fynset cross is not included in this gazetteer but there is info on the Peterborough HER.
