Early 20th C postcard of Greenhill Cross
Parish/DistrictHaxey/North Lincs
Locationon the remains of a green at the junction of Church Street, High Street and Greenhill Road
CategoryVillage cross
National Grid RefSK 76797 99896
DesignationScheduled / Listed II
Stone typeLimestone
RefsDavies, D. S., 1915, Lincs N & Q, Vol XIII No.5, pp149-152
VisitsDS/HH 4 June 2008

Greenhill cross is now somewhat hidden away on a much reduced green at the junction of Greenhill Road, High Street and Church Street. It has also (confusingly) been known as the Mowbray Cross (The Mowbrays were the medieval lords of Haxey manor). It shares its grassy mound (all that remains of the green, now a traffic island) with several trees which pretty much obscure it. Most sources suggest that the shaft is restored, but Nattes drew it in 1794 and it had most of its surviving shaft and the Mowbray arms of a lion rampant present. Nattes shows the socket stone mounted on a squared slab of stone and it is possible that is still present – but today, even most of the socket stone is buried. The socket stone is square with chamfered corners with stops as round bumps. The shaft is of square section (0.25 x 0.25m); its upper part, and the pyramidal cap, are modern.

Davies gives the socket stone dimensions as 0.8m square and c.0.33m high – He says the shaft is 2.27m high – but it had clearly already received its modern terminal by the time he recorded it in c.1915. A panel on the east side of the shaft bears painted relief carving of a shield with the Mowbray Arms: a lion rampant.

This little green is said to have also been the site of the village stocks, although they must have been gone by 1794 or Nattes would surely have drawn them. There is an undated and anonymous engraving in Stonehouse, which shows the stocks and cross.

Nattes drawing of Greenhill cross in 1794 (left) shows a recent plinth and most of the shaft (with carving) present (c) Lincs Archives). An engraving in Stonehouse (below) shows the village stocks adjacent to the cross.

Greenhill cross is difficult to photograph amid its ring of trees
Detail of the Mowbray arms on the cross shaft
Haxey (3) Greenhill Cross

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *