| Parish/District | Digby/North Kesteven |
| Location | Now a traffic island at the junction of Church St, Beck St and North Street |
| Category | Village cross |
| National Grid Ref | TF 08142 54777 |
| Designation | Listed II / Scheduled |
| Stone type | Limestone |
| Refs | Trollope, 1872, Sleaford etc, p. 224; AP survey 2 Dec 1993; Davies, D S, 1913, Lincs N & Q, Vol XII No.5 January, pp129-150 |
| Visits | AP: 2 Dec 1993 | DS/HH: 29 June 2006 |
Digby village cross was presumably once located at the edge of the village green, but modern traffic developments have turned it into a traffic island, with regular collisions and damage to its fabric. It is of the scale of a market cross, although there does not appear to be a market charter at Digby.
The cross is set on five steps, all quadrangular in plan and constructed of limestone slabs on coursed brick. The lowest step stands to a height of nearly 0.6m and is topped with worn slabs of limestone; filled slots indicate the former position of iron clamps. Similar limestone slabs form the southern side of the second step. The remainder of the second step, and all the upper steps, are topped with modern slabs. The base of the cross occupies an area approximately 3.2m square. On the uppermost step rests the socket stone, which is composed of two courses: the lower, a large limestone block with a base of square section with moulded and chamfered corners, and the upper a pair of narrower slabs clamped together to form a piece of octagonal section with chamfered edges. Set into the socket-stone is the shaft, which is square in section at the base and has chamfered corners tapering upwards in octagonal section. The shaft survives to its original height and is topped by a later knop, which is also octagonal in section. The head is late 20th-century in date and takes the form of a simple crucifix within a circle. The full height of the cross is approximately 5m.
D S Davies comments on a drawing of Digby Cross made in 1791, which showed an octagonal block on the top of the shaft carrying an iron and a weathercock. Presumably an 18th C restoration which, by the time Davies was writing, had been replaced with a new stone cross. The Revd Trollope, writing in 1872, comments that Digby’s village cross is ‘in a more perfect state than normal, eight feet of the shaft still remaining’. It seems possible, then, that the shaft of Digby’s cross is medieval in date. This is remarkable, considering that the monument has suffered several vehicle collisions in the twentieth century. Hilary wondered whether Lord Harrowby might have repaired the cross c.1800 as he did much other village improvement. There is a lot of ancient and modern graffiti on the cross (which mostly adds to its interest).
