The obelisk on Lincoln’s High Bridge in the Illustrated London News of 1869
Parish/DistrictLincoln city
Locationon High Bridge, Lincoln – some of it rebuilt at St Mark’s Shopping Centre
CategoryModern cross
National Grid RefSK 97522 71158 (rebuilt at SK 97267 70776)
DesignationNone
Stone TypeLimestone
RefsBirch, N., 1997, ‘The Lincoln Obelisk’, in Lincolnshire Past & Present, No 27, pp.8-9
Visits

There is one oddity that we might include as a ‘cross’ for Lincoln . . . on the High Bridge over the river Witham in Lincoln there once stood a small chantry chapel, built c.1235 and dedicated to St Thomas. Following the Reformation the chapel became a dwelling and shop and was eventually taken down in 1762. It was replaced with an extraordinary stone obelisk designed and built by John Dixon of Hull which functioned as a water supply with a conduit and cistern. This was altered in 1863 with the addition of a drinking fountain and public urinals (on the east side).

Concerns about its weight on the ancient bridge led to its removal in 1939 and the stones were put into storage at Boultham Park. Plans for its reinstatement were suspended with the onset of WWII and the monument was not resurrected until 1996 when it was rebuilt in the newly created St Mark’s Shopping Centre. Little of the original masonry had survived, with possibly the pineapple pinnacle, the civic shield and one piece of the dolphins feature being original.

Lincoln’s obelisk features in many pre-1939 historic photographs and postcards
The obelisk, recreated in St Mark’s Shopping Centre in 1996 – Only a few stones are from the original (Photo Richard Croft)
Lincoln (2) The Obelisk

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