Counties, wapentakes, medieval parishes and monastic estates had clearly defined boundaries which were marked in a wide variety of ways including the use of boundary stones or crosses. For parishes in particular, the common resources belonged to the inhabitants and it was important that villagers and their neighbours should know and respect the limits of the parish. The boundaries were checked and demonstrated at the yearly walking of the boundaries at Rogation time. This was also a way of passing on the knowledge of the boundaries and the boundary markers to the younger generation.
Parish boundaries were often marked by natural features in the landscape, such as streams, large trees or boulders, which could all be used to define the parish limits and its shape. Where there was no obvious geographical feature, boundary stones, or sometimes boundary crosses, were erected. These vary in style, size and shape. Survival of these stones is generally poor and they range across time from the Roman period into modern times.
In some areas (e.g. the North York Moors, Peak District and Dartmoor) hard stone is readily available and the setting up of a boundary stone or way-marker is not a major project. But Lincolnshire is not a county rich in stone – good stone was only really available on the Jurassic ridge – the escarpment (often call the Lincoln Edge or Cliff Edge) which runs N-S through the eastern part of Lincolnshire. Thus, for most of Lincolnshire, stone was not squandered and the luxury of boundary stones/crosses is rare. However, there is a good series around Crowland Abbey, others in Tydd St Mary and Sutton St James, and medieval boundary crosses are also known around the city of Lincoln.
In general, it has to be said that boundary markers do not form a major class of crosses in Lincolnshire. Boundary marking will have been as important here as anywhere, but other features, probably often natural features, must have been used. Of those that we do have, it is not clear in some cases whether we are recording a boundary stone (i.e. a simple pillar of stone) or a boundary cross which has been beheaded in the same way as other standing crosses.
Modern boundary stones exist throughout the county – usually as parish markers. There is an interesting set a Pinchbeck, described below:
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