156, 157. MALMESBURY, WILTSHIRE
MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION
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."
159. SALISBURY