SOME CHESHIRE CROSSES

By the Archdeacon of Chester

IT would be impossible, in the course of a short chapter, to give an adequate account of all the crosses in the county of which remains still exist. On such a subject, as in the case of most counties, a volume might be written. Nor will it be attempted even to refer to all of them or to give a complete list, and it may well be that some interesting specimens will be omitted, or not mentioned here, not because they are not worthy of mention, but because there is not space to do justice to them.

It cannot but be a matter of regret that Puritan fanaticism was responsible for the destruction of many, if not most, of these crosses throughout the country. It has been computed that at least 5000 had been at various times erected, and they afforded not only types of architectural design and ornament, but also historical evidence of former times and customs.

The crosses varied much in form and character, as also in position and origin. Many of them, no doubt, were in the first instance Preaching Crosses. The monks or other early heralds of Christianity would rear up some simple or wooden cross to mark the place from which they would address the people who came to hear them, and this would in process of time give place to a more permanent structure of stone, sometimes of an elaborate nature. Generally it would be elevated or raised upon a platform of steps, sometimes few, but sometimes as many as eight or more. The cross itself might be enriched with the Figure or with some inscription or pattern of some emblematic kind. After a time, in some places, a church would be erected, and the cross or its successor would become the Churchyard Cross. Where this did not happen, the cross would remain as a reminder to the people of the message that had been delivered there, and to teach them that all their actions were to have a religious purpose. In some instances the cross became a Market Cross, of which, in different parts of the country, we have various elaborate specimens. Here again the name, whether the form of the cross was prominent or not, was evidently meant to suggest that the transactions there carried on were to be true and just, as became Christian men. Sometimes the cross became “the High Cross,” where justice was administered and civic matters discussed; and in this case also the title is most suggestive. In addition to these there were Boundary Crosses, by which would be implied the sin of removing a neighbour’s landmark; and Weeping Crosses, visited by penitents. Of all these, except, so far as I know, the latter, there are, of course, many examples in the county, and of some of them this article will treat.

The High Cross, Chester.

First and foremost, it is a matter of great regret that the High Cross has disappeared from its position in the city of Chester. It has indeed left its name behind it, the junction of the four principal streets in the centre of the city being still known as The Cross, and being so named not from the fact of the cross-roads being there, but from the structure which once stood on the spot. This was a tall shaft with canopied head, on which were carved two rows of figures in niches, and on the top an orb surmounted by a cross. The civic buildings were close at hand, being built on to St. Peter’s Church, and being styled The Pentice, probably from pent-house, as indicating the way in which it was built on to the church. Though the offices of the municipality have long since been moved to the Town Hall, the old name is still preserved, one of the courts over which the Recorder presides being called in documents “The Pentice Court.” The High Cross was taken down in 1646, when the Parliamentarians entered the city, the other crosses having been destroyed in 1577 or earlier. It was removed to Netherleigh House in the outskirts of the city, then the home of the Cotgreaves. What is said to be the head of it is now in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester, but the carvings have been cut away, as it is quite plain; and the shaft is said to be in the grounds of Plas Newydd at Llangollen. The suggestion has been made that the cross might be restored, and though it could not be placed again on its old site, owing to the confined space and the exigencies of traffic, it might find a position of importance in some other part of the city. The High Cross was the scene of all great civic functions. Here, again and again, royalty was received and conducted into the adjacent Pentice and entertained. Here proclamations were read out with due formality, and here the Mystery Plays were represented, the first performance having taken place at the Abbey Gate before the Abbot and his brethren. The cross would thus be associated in the minds of the citizens with much of their civic life, and many noteworthy events in their history, and for this reason, if for no other, its removal is much to be regretted.

Reference has already been made to the destruction of crosses in 1577 in and about Chester. In that year Sheriff Mutton seems to have distinguished himself in this work, as we read that he pulled down certain crosses by a commission from the Archbishop’s visitors. Some probably had disappeared at an earlier date, for in 1543 the city mason was paid two days’ wages “for shiftyinge the cross” at St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill. No doubt at this period many of the churchyard crosses in the county, as well as in the city, were demolished. This was often done by shortening the shaft, thus taking away the cross itself, and using the portion that was left as the basis for a sun-dial. This was sometimes a flat one, as at St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill, Chester, and sometimes a four-sided one, as at Acton, where a very elaborate one of the latter description may be seen. In this latter case the base, out of which the octagonal shaft rises, rests upon a pedestal of three steps, and the square stone, with its dial-face on each side, is surmounted by a round knob. On the top of the cube there was this inscription: on the north, “Tempus fugit: mors venit”; and on the south, “Ut hora: sic vita.” Originally this cross must have been very fine in its proportions, and a conspicuous object, whether it occupied its present position (at the west of the church) or not. In the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, Chester, is a sun-dial, which probably stands where the Churchyard Cross stood, as marked in an old plan of the end of the fifteenth century preserved in the British Museum. In the old chapter-house of this church are preserved some fragments of crosses of a remarkable character. They are of beautiful design, and are fully described by the Bishop of Bristol in vol. xlix. of the British Archæological Journal. He assigns them to the pre-Norman period, and designates them as British, and prior to 903, when the Bréts were driven out of this part of England. In his opinion the fragments of two beautiful sculptured shafts are as fine in their work as any of the pre-Norman monuments left in England. Fragments of crosses of a similar character, and probably of a similar date, are to be found at Neston, Bromborough, and West Kirby, and a portion of one from Hilbre Island is now in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester. Most of these have circular wheel heads with three projections, a type of cross which (according to Mr. Romilly Allen) is common to North Wales and Cornwall, but does not appear to be known elsewhere. Some of the crosses here mentioned, besides others elsewhere, as at Disley (now at Lyme Hall) and at Cheadle, have no doubt been sepulchral, either as headstones or flat ones. Some, however, have been Churchyard or Preaching Crosses, and a notable instance of this is to be found in the fragments now preserved at Bromborough. The late Mr. E. W. Cox gave a very accurate and careful description of these, and a design for the reconstruction of the cross, which would have stood about 10 feet high. A similar one once existed at Wallasey, and is described in a MS. history of that parish early in the seventeenth century. It is said to have been broken in three pieces by the soldiers of William III., and afterwards used for steps to the churchyard stile. In many of our churchyards, as at Bebington and at Shocklach (and no doubt there are many other instances), the pedestals or bases of crosses are to be seen. In the latter place the stones of the three steps have been carefully refixed, and the stem been lengthened a foot at its lower end so that it might fit into the socket on the top base. On the top of the stem (from which, of course, the cross had been removed) are four semi-circular holes systematically placed opposite to each other, 2 to 2½ inches in diameter, and 1½ inches deep. These are not dowel or cramp holes for the affixing of a sun-dial, or for the cross itself; and it has been conjectured that marketing and other transactions would take place here, and that when the plague was raging these holes would be filled with vinegar, in which the coins would be placed, so as to render them free from infection. Many of our readers will think of other examples which are left, some, it may be, in their own churchyards, and will be able to associate with them scenes of former days. They may picture to themselves the congregations gathered round them listening to the monk or friar or other early preacher as he unfolded the story of which the cross was the centre and the emblem, and pressed upon his hearers the lessons it was to teach, and the impression it was to make upon their daily lives. Then, in some cases, these fragments which are left have preserved to us wonderful specimens of decorative treatment, interesting not merely to the archæological student, but also to the ordinary individual, as indications of the art and skill and thoroughness of past generations, and thus as treasured memorials of olden days. Sometimes the Churchyard Cross has been restored in recent years, as at Over Peover and St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill, Chester. In each case the shortened shaft had been made the receptacle of a sun-dial. At Peover the restored cross is a memorial to the late Sir Philip Mainwaring. On an octagonal shaft of Portland stone a moulded capped head has been placed, on which is carved the figure of our Lord upon the cross with St. Mary and St. John under a gabled canopy. The cross at St. Mary’s, Chester, is a floriated one of Yorkshire stone: at the bottom of the new work is a border with four angels, and above this architectural canopies or niches, in one of which is the patron saint of the church, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The cross occupies a most commanding position overlooking the river and the city walls. Other examples will no doubt occur to many of our readers.