There are records of TWO LOST CROSSES at Quarrington
White’s Lincolnshire Directory of 1856 (p. 549), records the following: There were in the parish two ancient crosses, one of which (1) is still standing (five feet high) at the north end of Mareham Lane and the site of the other (2) is marked by a small plantation, in Quarrington field, on the spot called in old writings ‘Stump Cross Hill’.
Trollope, writing in 1872, states: ‘Two stone crosses formerly existed in this parish. The shaft of one of these, about five feet high, stood near the tollgate on the Sleaford and Folkingham road. Half a mile nearer the village was the other, on a spot called after it – Stump Cross Hill – marked by a small plantation. Latterly its circular head alone remained which had a cross carved on both its sides.’ Davies (1913) repeats Trollope’s statement.
AP notes that the 1824 O.S. 1″ map (County of Lincoln and Parts Adjacent) (LAO Ref: L-912) shows a ‘Cross’ marked at the junction of Southgate and Grantham Road/London Road on the south side of the junction. This would have been a logical point for the tollgate, and the boundary cross (1), but this area was completely altered in 1857 when the railway line with station and level-crossing was constructed at this road junction. No trace of the cross survives today.
The other lost Quarrington cross (2), was said to be located on Stump Cross Hill. This place name (a clear indication of a standing cross location) still exists as a part of London Road in Quarrington parish. The circular cross head mentioned in White’s (and repeated by Trollope) cannot now be located.
