The Handley monument on Southgate, Sleaford – shown on a 1960s(?) postcard
Parish/DistrictSleaford/North Kesteven
LocationOn the main street through Sleaford (Southgate) near the junction with Boston Road
CategoryModern cross
National Grid RefTF 06889 45553
DesignationListed II
Stone Typenot known (statue in Caen stone)
RefsTrollope, Rev E, 1872, Sleaford etc, p169; Davies, D S, 1913, Lincs N & Q, Vol XII No.5, pp. 146-147; London Illustrated News 19 Oct 1850
Visits

Sleaford has a modern (1851) spire-type cross on the main street near the station to commemorate Henry Handley, MP for South Lincolnshire from 1832 to 1841. It is well described by Trollope (p.169):

[The Handley monument] … stands at the southern end of South Street, and is a great ornament to the town. Designed after the manner of Queen Eleanor’s crosses, its spire-like form, Gothic details, and appropriate iron fence below, render it an attractive feature. It was erected by subscription in 1851, after the designs of Mr William Boyle, of Birmingham, and executed by Mr W M Cooper of Derby at a cost of £1000. It commemorates Henry Handley, Esq., one of the representatives of South Lincolnshire in Parliament from 1832 to 1841, who died in 1846, and whose statue in Caen stone, by Mr Thomas, stands within its lower stage. Above this are two other diminishing stages, highly enriched with emblematical statuettes in canopied and crocketed niches, &c, and terminates with a crocketed spirelet. Its height is 65 feet. In front of this a supply of good water may always be obtained by the public, through a considerable gift of a pump and stone basin below it bearing the inscription “Every good gift is from above.”

Left – an engraving of the Handley monument from Trollope (1872) – and below, a postcard of c.1903

Caen stone statue of Henry Handley on the Handley monument (Photo jmc4 church explorer)
Sleaford (2)

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