Summary

Cross base of medieval date.

Description

Cross base of medieval date.

MATERIALS: sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: the cross base is situated in the verge adjacent to Preston Lancaster Road (A6), at the west end of Ripon Place, Catterall. The unfashioned sandstone boulder is about 1m x 0.8m x 0.73m in dimension, with a shallow square socket cut in the upper surface, which is 0.3 m square and about 0.05m deep.

History

Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the medieval period. In addition to serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on pilgrimages. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed base or show no evidence for a separate base at all. It is relatively common for the shaft of the cross to be missing, with many losses thought to have been the victims of Iconoclasts in the C16 and C17.

The first edition 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey map of the area (1847) marks a cross at the junction of Harrisons Lane and Joe Lane, annotated 'Part of a Stone Cross'. Subsequent maps also depict it in this location up to 1963 as 'Cross' and 'Cross (base of)', but it is absent from later maps. The cross was moved to a new location on the southern verge of Joe Lane, where it was listed in 2017. Due to the construction of a new housing development, it was removed for safe keeping and reinstalled in 2020, approximately 109m from its previous position at the west end of Ripon Place, Catterall, adjacent to the A6. An interpretation board was also installed. It is one of a small group of four cross bases in the vicinity, of which the other three examples are listed at Grade II. The church of St Helen, the largest medieval church in the area, lies within 2km north-west of the group.

Reasons for Listing

This medieval cross base is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* despite the loss of the original shaft and head, this is a standing cross of medieval date.

Historic interest:

* it illustrates well how some crosses served as wayside markers during the medieval period.

Group value:

* it benefits from a spatial and functional group value with three other listed crosses in the vicinity.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q66478515

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey