Holbeach

Parish/District	Holbeach/South Holland
Location	Possibly at the main crossroads to the north of All Saints church
Category	Lost Cross (market cross)
National Grid Ref	TF 3585 2485 (vicinity of)
Designation	N/A
Stone type	–
Refs	Peet, H, 1896, Holbeach High Cross, in Lincs N & Q, vol 4 pp. 33-36.
Visits	–

Holbeach was an important Fenland market town. It was granted a market charter in 1252 and would have doubtless have erected a market cross to emphasise its prerogatives. In the ‘Extensive Urban Survey’ report for Holbeach, it is stated: There is evidence for a cross being located on the present day Market Hill in Holbeach from the 13th century. It is mentioned in tax documents from c1273 as the defined point up to which the prior of Spalding could levy a tax on his fishery, suggesting that it may have already been a well established landmark in the town. This cross was replaced in the early 15th century;’

William Stukeley was born in Holbeach in 1687 and presents an image of this later market cross in his book Itinerarium Curiosum first published in 1724. He states that: ‘The old cross in the market-place was pulled down 1683’, and his drawing is offered as a reconstruction of what had been destroyed – He calls it merely: ‘Holbeach Cross, Lincolnshire’. We have no idea how faithful a representation of the cross this is, but he draws a small covered building with open arches mounted on steps; he shows it as pentagonal, which is unusual but not unique – Leighton Buzzard still has a pentagonal market cross.

Other writers and academics have reproduced and enhanced Stukeley’s drawing, Vallance, calling it a ‘preaching cross’ thus introducing another layer of confusion.

The most likely location of Holbeach’s market cross is the area of the five-way cross roads just to the NW of the parish church, still known as Market Hill in the 20^th century.