
The standing stone cross is a potent symbol which has been in use for over a thousand years. There are many modern examples, usually for commemorative purposes but occasionally as purely religious symbols. Modern churchyard crosses can often be found as memorials to specific vicars/patrons or marking the consecration of new areas of graveyards. In towns, modern crosses (which may be very grand monuments) often commemorate local benefactors and landowners.
By far the most common recent use of the standing cross has been for war memorials to commemorate those who died in the First World War. Although these war memorials come in a very wide range of monuments and buildings, the greater majority of them are standing stone crosses of various designs. Celtic/wheel headed crosses were popular, as were simple Latin crosses, both often overlain with a crusader sword. The designs were usually locally generated giving rise to wide variation. A Lincolnshire speciality was for war memorial designs based on the medieval cross in St Margaret’s churchyard, Somersby – which is a rare survival of a complete fourteenth century standing cross.
War memorials are not included in this gazetteer except for those memorials which have incorporated medieval elements in a new or restored standing cross. A full listing and gazetteer of Lincolnshire’s war memorials can be found in Michael Credland’s excellent book, published in 2014, The First World War Memorials of Lincolnshire (buy one HERE)
Examples of medieval crosses restored as war memorials are described in the gazetteer at:
