Fragments of Louth cross found in 2015
Parish/DistrictLouth/East Lindsey
LocationCross fragments found in Louth vicarage garden in 2015 – cross originally in the market place
CategoryLost cross (Market cross)
National Grid RefTF 32869 87345 (estimate)
DesignationNone
Stone TypeLimestone (Lincoln Jurassic)
RefsEverson, P and Stocker, D,2017, ‘The Cros in the Markitte Stede’. The Louth Cross, its Monastery and its Town, Medieval Archaeology, 61:2, pp. 330-371
VisitsDS/DAS: 2015

The Louth cross is a pre-Conquest decorated example that falls into the category of a ‘high cross’ and as such would normally be described in the Lincolnshire Corpus. However, the corpus was published in 1999 and the discovery of the Louth cross fragments was not made until 2015, so a brief description has been included here. The link to the full publication in Medieval Archaeology in 2017, is given above.

Louth was, and to some extent still is, an important market town in Lindsey. The Bishop of Lincoln held a market charter in the town from 1086, but Louth’s religious, political and economic status go back to the establishment of a monastery here in the 8th century.

Louth must have possessed several crosses, but none survive today. However, we read that 2s. 8d. were spent in 1537 on ‘taking down the  “cross in the Marketstede”’. The Louth architect Thomas Espin made a series of drawings showing the cross incorporated within a later Town Hall building, all of which was demolished in 1815.

In 2015, two fragments from a decorated pre-Conquest cross were discovered in a rockery in Louth vicarage garden. Everson and Stocker’s analysis of these stones leads to the suggestion that they are part of a mid-tenth century cross erected to mark the bishop of Lindsey’s promotion of Louth and Louth market.

Everson and Stocker present a reconstruction of the cross and give a suggested sequence for its development, from an open, standing market cross  through two phases of enclosing market buildings, up to its demolition c.1815.

Reconstruction drawing of the Louth market cross
Suggested phases of development of Louth market cross and its associated structures
Thomas Espin’s Drawings of Louth Market Cross and the Old Town Hall c.1815
Louth

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