alongside the High Street, at the point whence a narrow lane leads
to the north-west angle of the cathedral churchyard. The cross is
remarkable for its lightness and the gracefulness of its proportions.
It is mounted on five octagonal steps; it is square on plan, and is
enhanced by pinnacles and two tiers of flying buttresses. The open
arches of the lowest stage are four-centred, and surround a central
shaft. The next stage above forms an open tabernacle for statues, of
which, however, by 1741, only one original figure, 5 ft. 10 in. high,
survived. The cross measures between 45 and 50 ft. in height; and
dates, apparently, from the second half of the fifteenth century, but
has been sadly over-restored.
VI. MARKET CROSSES
"The general intent of market crosses," as defined by Bishop Milner,
was twofold, viz., religious and ethical--first, "to incite public
homage to the religion of Christ crucified," and secondly, "to
inspire men with a sense of morality and piety amidst the ordinary
transactions of life." This being so, "every town had its cross, at
which engagements, whether of a religious or worldly interest, were
entered into," says another writer, Brady. It would seem that, at
first, there was no difference of form between the market or village
cross and the normal churchyard cross of shaft-on-steps type. But
as the need developed of providing for the greater comfort and
convenience of folk gathered round the cross for market business, the
demand was met by erecting a penthouse roof about the lower part of
the already existing cross. Such a transformation is known to have
taken place at Norwich, and obviously also must have been effected at
Castle Combe in Wiltshire, Bingley in Yorkshire, and at Axbridge and
Cheddar in Somersetshire. This method of adaptation, however, cannot
have proved entirely satisfactory, because the platform or steps of
the shaft in such cases occupied too much of the space beneath the
shelter. And so the distinctive form of market cross was evolved at
length, planned from the outset as a cross and roof combined in one
coherent structure, the base of the central shaft being surrounded
by a footing of only a single step, a convenient bench to sit upon,
instead of the old-fashioned high flight of graduated steps. Such a
typical market cross might be built either of stone or of timber work,
its essential feature always being the covered in space for shelter
from the weather.
[Illustration: 148. AXBRIDGE, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
In Wells, at the junction of Sadler Street with the High Street, stood
a cross, which must have been the most beautiful of all structures
of its kind. As represented in the prospect of the city, drawn by
William Simes, in 1735 (Fig. 149), it was a Gothic work of singular
richness and elegance. Its bottom storey consisted of two-centred
arches between buttressed piers surmounted by pinnacles, with a
parapet of open tracery. The upper portion consisted of a lantern
of two diminishing stages, with late-Gothic traceried windows and
parapets, with pinnacles at the angles, the lower one of the two
stages connected with the ground storey by flying buttresses. The
whole was crowned by a most gracefully tapered spire, terminating in
a weathercock. This exquisite monument was swept away by order of
the Corporation, December 1785, on the ground that part of the cross
having "lately fallen down, and the remainder being in a ruinous state
and dangerous," the entire cross must be demolished, and its materials
carried elsewhere to some convenient place. This cross obviously dated
from the middle of the fifteenth century or even earlier, and was,
doubtless, the same cross, referred to by Bishop Beckington (1443-64),
in his charter providing for the conveyance of water by conduit
"to the high cross in the market place." Nevertheless, it has been
identified by at least two writers, Charles Pooley and Alex. Gordon,
with a cross which the antiquary Leland relates that he saw in process
of construction. Leland describes this cross as having two concentric
rings, an outer ring or "circumference" of seven pillars, and an inner
"circumference" of six pillars, with a vaulted ceiling under the
_Domus Civica_. This particular building was completed in 1542. It was
erected by Bishop William Knight, with the help of a bequest from Dean
Richard Woolman. But the cross of Simes' map must have been, at least,
a century earlier in date than the cross of 1542, the account of which
tallies neither in architectural style nor in shape with the other.
In the one illustrated, there is no sign of two concentric arcades,
while the lantern storey is far too small ever to have served for the
headquarters of the municipal body. The discrepancies, in short, are
such that one is driven to the conclusion that there must have been,
at one and the same time, two separate crosses at Wells. It should
be added that the tolls of the market cross, which he built, were
given, by Bishop Knight's will, "for the use of the choristers of the
Cathedral Church for ever."
[Illustration: 149. WELLS, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 150. NORTHAMPTON
MARKET CROSS]
The Market Cross of Axbridge, Somersetshire (Fig. 148), illustrated,
after a painting of the year 1756, in a communication from George
Bennett to the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1805, was demolished in or
about 1770. The structure appears to have been hexagonal on plan.
Its piers were buttressed, its arches four-centred. The surrounding
parapet was of pierced Gothic tracery, interrupted by a pinnacle over
each of the piers. The roof was conical, with a lofty vane. The height
to which the steps within, beneath the central shaft, rose, suggests
that this was an instance where the cross must have been in existence
first, and the shelter a subsequent addition.
[Illustration: 151. SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSETSHIRE
INSCRIPTION ON MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 152. SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 153. NORWICH
MARKET CROSS, WITH PLAN AND DETAIL]
[Illustration: 154. LICHFIELD
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 155. TAUNTON, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
At Shepton Mallet a market cross (Fig. 152) was erected in 1500 by
private benefaction, as recorded on the original engraved brass, or
latten plate, attached to the structure. The text of the inscription
(see Fig. 151) (in modernised spelling) is as follows: "Of your
charity pray for the souls of Walter Buckland, and Agnes his wife,
with whose goods this cross was made in the year of our Lord God,
1500, whose obit shall be kept for ever in this parish church of
Shepton Mallet, the 28th day of November, whose souls Jesu pardon."
"There are certain lands, apparently a part of the Bucklands' bequest,
the revenues of which are devoted to keeping the cross in repair,
any surplus being distributed among the poor. This 'Cross Charity,'"
as it is called, "was formerly administered by trustees, but has
recently"--the passage was written in 1907--"been transferred to the
Urban Council. The title-deeds have long been lost; and some years ago
the Charity Commissioners were inclined to" alienate "the property
from the cross." The trustees, however, tenaciously fulfilled their
obligations, "and from 1841 onwards, if not before, kept the cross
in thorough repair." (Dr F. J. Allen.) The character of the cross
has been so much changed from time to time by reconstruction and
misrestoration, that it has now become impossible to determine what
the ancient design really was; but it seems to have consisted of a
shelter very like that formerly at Axbridge, with a central spire like
that formerly at Taunton (Fig. 155). From the presence of pinnacles
at the angles there can be deduced but one logical conclusion, viz.,
that the piers must have been, and should yet be, buttressed. The
buttresses, however, have completely disappeared. The frequent traffic
of heavy vehicles--for the market was once much busier than it has
become since the introduction of the railway--would probably have
damaged the projecting buttresses; and their omission, therefore,
curtailing the extent of the area occupied by the cross, may have
been designed to lessen the liability of the latter to collisions
with market carts. It is supposed that the top of the central
spire fell in the eighteenth century, damaging the substructure.
Anyhow, at some time in the seventeenth, or in the early part of the
eighteenth century, the hexagonal shelter was taken down from around
the central pier (which still remains intact), and was then rebuilt
in its present form, portions only of the old Gothic parapet, and
the pinnacles, being re-used. This rebuilding has escaped record,
but that it did take place the internal evidence of the structure
itself makes sufficiently obvious. The absence, already mentioned,
of buttresses; the clumsy, square blocks which do duty for the bases
of the piers; the classic imposts of the latter, and the depressed
arches (unconstructional, because they are not turned with voussoirs,
but formed each of one huge pair of stones, cambered to simulate an
arch in outline), and the exaggeratedly prominent keystones, could
never have been perpetrated at the early date of 1500, but at some
subsequent rebuilding, of which the sum of them affords cumulative and
convincing proof. Charles Pooley (_Old Stone Crosses of Somerset_,
1877) states that the cross was rebuilt from the ground in 1841: but
he was clearly mistaken. Dr F. J. Allen, of Cambridge, is positive on
this point. His grandfather, as one of the trustees of the Shepton
Mallet cross, was largely responsible for the rebuilding in question;
and his own mother and uncle, living as children in their father's
house, facing the cross, were eye-witnesses of the progress of the
work, and could distinctly remember that only the spire above the
roof was reconstructed. Minor repairs may have been done at the same
time to the rest of the building, but it was certainly not taken down
bodily. The architect employed was G. B. Manners, of Bath; and it is
claimed that his design for the modern spire is a careful reproduction
of the original one. To what extent this is the case may perhaps be
judged by comparing the spire actually standing with an illustration,
which appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1781, from a drawing
made in 1747. The latter may be faulty, but, such as it is, its value
as a record can scarcely be overrated, since it furnishes the earliest
extant version of Shepton Mallet cross. The accompanying letterpress
says: "On the top of the cross, on the east side, are figures in
niches, and, above all, a modern weathercock." The engraving, it
is true, shows figures on more sides of the head than one; but the
discrepancy need not be material, if one may conjecture that all
the figures, other than those on the east side, had perished in the
interval between 1747 and 1781. In any event the massive, carved stone
cylinder, depicted as capping the spire in 1747, cannot have been the
original cross-head of 1500, which, according to Pooley, was "a heavy,
lantern-shaped stone, bearing figures of our Saviour on the cross
between two malefactors, besides the images of several saints." This
cross-head was probably removed at the time of the rebuilding of
the shelter; and the cross-head which succeeded it is most likely the
same one which fell, as already mentioned, in the eighteenth century.
Pooley concludes his notice of Shepton Mallet cross thus: "Some of
the fragments of the old cross I saw lying in a builder's yard at
Darshill," a hamlet in Shepton Mallet parish. "A grandson of that
builder," writes Dr F. J. Allen, in September 1919, "now living at
Shepton, states that he can well remember his grandfather selling a
selection of those fragments to Lord Portman, who removed them to his
house at Blandford."
[Illustration: 156, 157. MALMESBURY, WILTSHIRE
MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION]
[Illustration: 158. MALMESBURY
PLAN OF MARKET CROSS]
At Malmesbury, Wiltshire, there stands, some 200 ft. directly south
of the south end of the old transept of the Abbey Church, and about
50 ft. east of the south-east angle of St Paul's Parish Church, a
handsome market cross (Figs. 156, 157, 158) of the same type as those
of Cheddar, Chichester, and Salisbury. The following is Leland's
account of the cross: "There is a right fair and costly piece of
work in the market place, made all of stone, and curiously vaulted,
for poor market folks to stand dry when rain cometh. There be eight
great pillars, and eight open arches, and the work is eight square
(octagonal). One great pillar in the middle beareth up the vault. The
men of the town made this piece of work _in hominum memoria_ (within
living memory)." Leland wrote between about 1535 and 1545; and the
date assigned to the cross is 1490. With regard to the open arches it
would be more accurate to state that two only of the number are open
to the ground. The six others are confined at the bottom by a low
fence-wall. "A deeply moulded flying buttress rises from each pier,
clear of the richly-groined roof, the light ribs being drawn into
a cluster by a wide string-band supporting a large pinnacle and ogee
finial. This pinnacle bears traces of sculptured figures, and, on the
west face, of a crucifix; but the faces of the work are much abraded
by the weather, and perhaps rough treatment, for most of the bosses
have been broken from the groined vault."
[Illustration: 159. SALISBURY
POULTRY, OR MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 160. SALISBURY
POULTRY CROSS, AS RESTORED]
[Illustration: 161, 162. CHICHESTER
MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION]
[Illustration: 163. CHICHESTER
PLAN OF MARKET CROSS]
The Market Cross at Chichester (Figs. 11, 161-163) was built shortly
before 1500 by Bishop Edward Storey, who endowed it with an estate at
Amberley, Sussex, producing a yearly rental of £25, that the means
for keeping the cross in constant repair might be assured. It is
octagonal on plan, its eight arches all open to the ground. This is
much the most elaborately ornamented of the crosses of its class. The
flying buttresses (unlike those of Malmesbury cross) are crocketed
at intervals all the way along their ogee course; and the side walls
above the arches are richly panelled. Splendid though Chichester
cross is still, it has been shamefully disfigured by incongruous
innovations intruding upon the original design. It was probably at
the "restoration," under Charles II., that the bust of Charles I. was
set up in an oval recess, inserted in the place of one of the niches
of the parapet. The clock above was fixed in 1724. Again the cross
suffered excessive repair, and further alterations in 1746.
In the case of the market crosses of Chichester and Malmesbury the
ring of pinnacles and the flying buttresses, converging upon the
central shaft, itself culminating in a sculptured lantern, resemble
in general effect the crown steeples of King's College, Aberdeen,
and of the collegiate church of St Giles at Edinburgh. But there is
a difference. In the Scottish instances the lantern is structurally
upheld by the combined thrust of the flying buttresses, without
vertical support. In the English market crosses, on the contrary, the
shaft, rising from the floor and passing right up through the roof,
sustains the lantern from directly underneath.
Salisbury Poultry Cross (Figs. 159, 160) must originally have been
constructed in the same way, but, some time before May 1789 (see
illustration in _Archæologia_, Vol. IX., p. 373) the whole of the
original superstructure above the roof had perished. The pinnacles,
flying buttresses, and lantern, which now crown the roof, are only
a modern restoration, albeit a very excellent one. The plan of the
Poultry Cross is hexagonal. In addition to this cross there are known
to have existed at one time in Salisbury the Cheese Cross, Bernard's
Cross, and that before the west door of the cathedral. One of the
number was erected by Lawrence de St Martino, as a penance enjoined
before September 1388, by Bishop Radulph Ergham because Lawrence, who
was infected with Lollardism, had been guilty of flagrant irreverence
toward the Blessed Sacrament. To complete his penance he was required
to come and kneel in the open air, barefoot and bareheaded, before
the said cross every Saturday for the rest of his life. A record of
his offence and of its punishment was to be inscribed upon the cross
itself, and, assuming this penance cross to be the actually existing
market cross, it has been conjectured that the six panelled sides of
its central pillar bore the required text. But the identity is very
doubtful, more especially as 1388 seems too early a date, by some
hundred years, for the Poultry Cross.
The old Market Cross at Glastonbury (Fig. 164) has unfortunately
disappeared. The shelter was octagonal and gabled. But the singular
feature of the design was that the gables, instead of surmounting
the arched openings, were placed over the spandrels and the piers
between the arches. Conformably, then, with the canted plan of the
structure, the face of each gable was returned at an angle from its
central vertical line, a simple but quite unusual device, which
produced a remarkably quaint and original effect. The picturesqueness
was enhanced by the presence hard by of a water conduit, which grouped
charmingly with the more imposing structure of the market cross. Both,
however, becoming dilapidated through neglect, were demolished in 1808.
At Norwich (Fig. 153) the first market cross was erected in the
time of Edward III. (1327-37). It is known to have been repaired in
the reign of Henry IV. (1399-1413). The structure must have been
of considerable size, since it contained a chapel and four shops.
Becoming decayed, it was pulled down in 1501, and rebuilt, the new
cross being finished in 1503. Like its predecessor, it contained an
oratory or chapel. It was octagonal, raised on steps, and appears to
have been originally an instance, on a large scale, of a spire-shaped
cross with an entrance on the west side between two vices leading to
the upper storeys. In the seventeenth century, apparently, the cross
was surrounded by sixteen pillars, _i.e._, eight large and eight
intermediate pillars of slenderer size, to support a flat leaded
roof for the shelter of the market people--an addition which totally
altered the aspect of the original spire-shaped cross. Meanwhile, in
the first year of Edward VI., the crucifixes which had adorned the
cross were taken down by order of the King's visitors. The standard
weights and measures of the city used to be kept in the market cross.
The oratory in it was let in 1574 to the company of workers in
leather. In 1646 the cross was repaired by means of a graduated tax,
levied on all the citizens in proportion to their means. In 1646,
also, the floor of the cross was paved. In 1664 it was appointed for
the Court of Guard, and in 1672 was "beautified and adorned" according
to the fashion of the day. Just sixty years afterwards the cross
was again alleged to be in decay, its materials were sold and the
whole cross swept away, the demolition beginning in August 1732.
[Illustration: 164. GLASTONBURY, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 165. CHEDDAR, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 166. SOMERTON, SOMERSETSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 167. MAIDSTONE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 168. OUNDLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
At Lichfield (Fig. 154), the Market Cross, octagonal on plan, with
two-centred open arches, and with figures by way of pinnacles at
the angles of the parapet, was erected at the cost of Dean Denton
(1521-32).
At Northampton, the Market Cross (Fig. 150) was erected in 1535.
It stood upon an octagonal platform of stone, 2 ft. in height,
and comprised eight wooden columns, the entire surface of their
cylindrical shafts carved, supporting the pointed arches of the
octagonal shelter. "And the timbers from one pillar to the next
pillar were arched and carved. In the middle (of the platform) were
three steps or rounds of stone to sit upon," as well as for means of
approach on one side to the doorway which, "locked from market to
market," gave access to the stairway curtained within the cylindrical
shaft of stone rising in the centre. This shaft terminated above the
roof in a lantern with glazed windows, within which were deposited
the standard weights and measures, and other utensils connected with
the market. There was ample room to walk round upon the lead-covered
roof between the lantern and the embattled parapet. The latter was
ornamented at every angle of the octagon with a standard, or post,
surmounted by a little ape holding a rod with a vane attached. "The
whole was set out and beautified with branches of lead, and, upon all
squares (faces) little panels of lead like coats of arms gilt, and a
great ornament to the place." The cross, unfortunately, perished in
the general conflagration at Northampton, on 20th September 1675.
[Illustration: 169. IPSWICH
MARKET CROSS]
The old Market Cross at Taunton, Somersetshire, apparently dated from
about the middle of the sixteenth century. It was hexagonal on plan,
with pointed arches springing from columns, presumably cylindrical,
with polygonal bases. Above the arches was a penthouse roof of
boarding, designed, no doubt, to augment the area of the shelter
beneath. The top of the walls was crenellated, with pinnacles at the
angles. The central shaft rose into two diminishing tiers of niches
for statues. The original top having vanished, its place was taken
by a square block with sundials on the faces, with an ogee roof
surmounted by a weathercock. The cross was demolished in 1769, but
its general appearance is perpetuated by a very rough drawing in the
British Museum (Fig. 155).
[Illustration: 170, 171, 172. IPSWICH, SUFFOLK
MARKET CROSS, WITH DETAILS OF WOOD CARVING]
[Illustration: 173. CASTLE COMBE, WILTSHIRE
MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 174, 175, 176. CASTLE COMBE, WILTSHIRE
MARKET CROSS, WITH PLAN, SECTION, AND DETAILS]
The Market Cross at Cheddar, Somersetshire (Fig. 165), is a stone
structure of six four-centred open arches and shelter, evidently built
up round an older cross of the shaft-on-steps type. The shaft, which
dates from the fifteenth century, is octagonal, and, with its knop,
rears through the top of the roof. The piers of the surrounding arches
are buttressed and the parapet is embattled. Extensive renewing took
place in 1834, and the steps were repaired in 1835.
The Market Cross at Somerton, Somersetshire (Fig. 166), which may
be compared with that of Cheddar, was built in 1673, a surprisingly
late date in view of the character of the cross itself. The latter
is octagonal, with pyramidal roof of eight cants; its piers are
buttressed, and, above a stringcourse with gargoyles at the outer
angles, rises an embattled parapet. So closely, indeed, are the
forms of architectural tradition adhered to, that, but for the
segmental arches with their heavy keystones, one would have had little
hesitation in assigning the cross to the first half of the sixteenth
century.
At Maidstone (Fig. 167), the Market Cross, or as it was formerly
called, from its original purpose, the Corn Cross, stood at the
top of High Street in the centre of the roadway. The date of its
erection is unknown, but it is thought to have been about the middle
of the sixteenth century, at the time of the incorporation of the
borough by Edward VI. A sketch, ascribed to Cornelius Jansen, drawn
upon ass's skin and dated 1623--the property, through the Bosville
family, of J. H. Baverstock--shows the cross to have been an octagonal
structure with an umbrella-like roof, covered apparently with slates,
and surmounted by a leaden cross. Later drawings and paintings show
that the arches were four-centred, and supported on clustered wooden
shafts, and that, in place of the cross on the top, there had been
substituted a lead-covered dome, or cupola, from the summit of
which rose a pole of turned wood. In the spandrels of the arches
were curious carvings illustrative of a butcher's calling. About
1608 it was converted into the butcher's market. The cross, says
William Newton in his _Antiquities of Maidstone_, 1741, "appears to
have been very large; but only a part of it is now remaining, which
is handsomely covered with lead, and used for the fish market." In
1771 it was considered to be an obstruction to the traffic, and was
accordingly moved on rollers a slight distance to the side of the
street, just below the square stone conduit shown in the illustration;
but it did not stand there very long, for it was finally demolished in
1780.