Village Cross

Allington’s village cross once stood next to the stocks on the village green. It was extensively restored in the 19th C and is now imprisoned behind bars on the tiny piece of remaining village green that remains.

Cranwell village cross now forms the dreary equivalent of a traffic island in the centre of Cranwell village. The site was clearly once the village green with the village pond and pump nearby, visible on early photographs and OS maps.

Denton village cross stands on what was once the village green, east of the church – in 1715 a charity school was set up on part of the green, including where the cross stands. In 1894 a new school was built behind the old one, which became a private house – now Leys House – Thus the village cross is now located in its garden.

Denton village cross stands on what was once the village green, east of the church – in 1715 a charity school was set up on part of the green, including where the cross stands. In 1894 a new school was built behind the old one, which became a private house – now Leys House – Thus the village cross is now located in its garden.

Dunsby village cross is a sad tale of loss. The cross was presumably once on a green adjacent to All Saints church but by the 19th century, housing and road development had confined it to a narrow verge at a road junction – it was already nearly buried when surveyed for scheduling in 1993.

Ewerby was granted a market charter in 1254, so it is right to think of the village’s impressive cross as a market, rather than village, cross. Trollope (p.365) also notes a churchyard cross – now lost

Fulbeck village cross stands on a small green to the south east of the church. Nattes drew the cross stump in 1805 showing three steps, the socket stone and a small section of shaft. He shows the village stocks adjacent and the church in the background. The cross was restored (over-restored?) in the mid nineteenth century, and a new shaft knop and head added.

An idyllic village cross with a stunning view – best visited in Spring when the daffodils are in bloom.

There is a cross base lying by the side of Low Road, Grayingham, near to the Old School House. It has been known locally as the Plague Stone but there does not appear to be any local tradition to back up this suggestion, which is probably just based on its form (i.e. a big square stone with a recess in it).

Harlaxton village cross is located on a small green at a road junction in the centre of the village. It has been restored to create a sort of obelisk, although some parts of it appear to derive from a medieval cross. A newspaper report of 1889 (see below) suggests it was damaged in that year and given ‘an immediate and complete restoration’ by Mrs Sherwin Gregory.

This cross is at the east end of the church just beyond the churchyard wall on the pavement edge. It is known as Lady Mowbray’s Stone and is a large medieval socket  stone reused as a horse mounting block with rough steps added at the sides and modern brick repairs. It is adjacent to the churchyard and you can’t help but wonder if it was a churchyard cross moved out to its present secular position for a new role?

Helpringham had a market charter granted in 1259 and with it, an impressive market cross with five steps on the village green.

Davies says that the Towngate Cross is located where the Toll Bar once stood. It was quite possibly a boundary cross marking the northern limit of Market Deeping.

The remains of two standing crosses are in the churchyard of St Mary’s at Marshchapel and there is some slight confusion in the records of their descriptions and background, but cross number (2), which is (now) set on gravel to the north of the tower, is generally octagonal in shape, whereas number (1) – listed as a churchyard cross – has a square base.

There is a village cross on what was probably once the village green – now the wide junction of Main Street (A153) and Church Lane – in the centre of North Kyme. It was extensively restored in 1821.

There is a restored cross on a small triangular green c. 100m south east of St Peter’s church in North Rauceby. The Lincs HER suggests that the cross base was moved from the churchyard and restored on the green in 1863/64 although the source for this information and date is not clear.

ippingale was granted a Market Charter for a Wednesday market in 1258 and this cross, at the south edge of Rippingale’s village green, may have been the market cross. The 1887 O.S. map shows ‘Cross’ on the small green east of the churchyard. Davies notes that in 1913 it was protected by railings.

Rowston is a good example of a village cross surviving on a small fragment of village green – which it presently shares with a mature tree. It has two steps surmounted by a socket stone with a fragment of shaft. Davies records an inscription on the bottom step ‘Restored 1910’

Silk Willoughby village cross is located on the west side of the main street of the village. It is a very fine cross with carvings of the symbols of the evangelists on the four sides of the socket stone.

Skillington has a repaired village cross set on a small green bounded by Park Lane and Church Street, to the south east of the church.

In the village of Stainton by Langworth is another case of settlement encroachment of the village green resulting in the village cross ending up in someone’s private garden.

There is a village cross at Swinstead  set on a small triangular space (now a traffic island) to the north west of the parish church. It was drawn by Nattes in 1804 and he shows it grouped with the village stocks and communal well. It comprises two octagonal steps surmounted by a square plinth, socket stone and a short fragment of shaft..

Washingborough did not hold a market charter, but its village cross has all the stature of a good market cross. Four substantial steps and a large socket stone with a tolerable Edwardian restoration of shaft and cross-head. There is a charming painting by the Revd Sibthorp of the cross in the mid 19th century – prior to restoration which shows that the base and socket stone have not been substantially altered by the successive restorations and repairs.

There is a fine village cross at Wellingore which has been moved from the centre of the village to a small green at the northern end of the village. The move was carried out in 1931 when the village High Street was by-passed to allow motor buses to pass through without mishap. The village cross was in the way of the new A607, Cliff Road.

Westborough has a substantial cross base with four large steps set on its village green. There is no market charter recorded for Westborough but this cross has the aura of a market cross.

The cross in Weston churchyard seems to have been relocated there from the village, for Nattes (c.1800) has a drawing of something very similar,  labelled as: ‘Remains of the cross in a wall near the Inn at Weston’. The Inn is presumably the Chequers Inn (later, The Carter’s Arms) adjacent to the church. The church guide records that the cross was restored in1897 (modelled on the Somersby cross) as part of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations.