An old milestone stands where the stalk has been. Dr Raine (_St
Cuthbert_) states that documents in the Treasury refer to an earlier
Nevill's Cross in the same place; but he gives no references."
Six and a half miles south of Durham, in the modern village of Ferry
Hill, is the fragment of an old stone cross, named Cleve's Cross.
This monument, according to tradition, commemorates the valour of
one, Roger de Ferry, who slew a monster wild boar, which had been the
terror of the whole countryside.
At Wigan, Lancashire, are the rude remains of an ancient stone cross,
concerning which the following tradition is told. While Sir William
Bradshaigh was engaged in the holy wars or in travelling overseas,
his wife Mabel, weary of waiting for his return, bigamously married a
Welsh knight. After an absence of ten years, however, Sir William came
home again and, notwithstanding his pilgrim's habit, was recognised by
his wife. Whereupon the Welsh knight fled from the outraged husband,
who pursued, and, overtaking, slew him. Dame Mabel's confessor
enjoined her to walk barefoot once every week for the rest of her
life to do penance at a certain cross on the outskirts of Wigan. The
cross is the same which is situated at the end of Standishgate, and
has borne the significant name of "Mab's Cross" from the fourteenth
century to this day. The romantic story was used by Sir Walter
Scott as the basis of his novel, _The Betrothed_. This tradition of
employing crosses as places of public penance survives in the shape of
the old-fashioned stocks situated at the foot of village and market
crosses (Fig. 6).
Of Banbury Cross, Oxfordshire, immortalised in nursery rhyme, it is
much to be regretted that no vestige remains. John Leland, between
about 1535 and 1545, writes in his _Itinerary_: "At the west part of
the street," which runs east and west through the town, "is a large
area, having a goodly cross with many degrees (steps) about it. In
this area is kept every Thursday a very celebrate market."
As the churchyard or village cross was the centre of the life of the
smaller community, so also the market cross became the centre of the
municipal life of towns and boroughs. Thus, it was the custom, at the
close of the civic year, for the mayor and electors, being summoned
by the blowing of a horn, to assemble at the churchyard cross at
Folkestone, and at the market cross (now but a gaunt obelisk) at
Ripon, for the election of a mayor for the ensuing year of office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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