Spading Market Place c.1800 – The market cross is long gone and in a pump is in the approximate location
Parish/DistrictSpalding/South Holland
Locationtowards the eastern end of the Market Stead
CategoryLost cross (Market cross)
National Grid RefTF 24795 22645 (vicinity of)
DesignationN/A
Stone Type
RefsJohn Grundy, 1732, A Plan of the Town of Spalding in South Holland
Visits

Spalding was an important market centre before the Conquest and that status has continued into the 20th century. A market charter for a Friday market was also granted in 1242. No market cross survives in the town today, but old maps show a cross in the Market Stead.

Grundy’s 1732 map of Spalding shows a cross symbol at the southern end of the Market Stead – with the word ‘Olim’ above it, implying the site or ruins of a market cross. The same cross site is shown on a 1750 map drawn by architect R H Holmes. A newspaper report from the Lincolnshire Chronicle of 19 July 1850 states: ‘In the year 1772, the ancient cross in the Market Place of Spalding was taken down in consequence of its dilapidated condition: the market place was also repaved . . . .’

No trace of this cross can be seen today, although the market place remains in use on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Extracts from John Grundy’s 1732 map showing the Market Stead with the cross symbol and ‘Olim’

R H Holmes’s map of 1750 also shows the location of the market cross (Number 4)
Newspaper report (Lincolnshire Chronicle 19 July 1850) giving a date of 1772 for the removal of Spalding market cross
Spalding

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