Ancient Crosses

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The church (dedicated to S. Michael) is of ancient foundation. The ornamentation of the font testifies to the pre-Norman date of the edifice. A handsome cross was erected on the village green, near the south-west corner of the churchyard in the jubilee year, 1897. It replaced […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Cox writes (in 1888): “The base of the churchyard cross still lies opposite the site of the old south porch.” There is, however, some doubt whether this stone is the base of the cross, or the base of a column of the nave arcade of […]

Woolton Cross was put up at the northern end of the original village in around 1350. A second cross, Hunt’s Cross, was erected at the southern end of the township, the pedestal of which still stands, topped with a concrete bollard. Woolton Cross was restored in 1913 by Arthur Mather in celebration of Woolton becoming […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: These words occur on the six-inch ordnance map at the intersection of roads one-third of a mile south-east from the centre of Gateacre village and about half a mile in a north-easterly direction from Much Woolton Church.

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The words “pedestal of stone cross” occur on the 1848 six-inch ordnance map at “Hunt’s Cross,” close to Hunt’s Cross Station, at the intersection of Hunt’s Cross Lane and Sandy Lane, two miles inland from the river Mersey. The words “Hunt’s Cross House” occur on the […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Cox writes: “The other cross stood below the rock on which was built Garston Hall at the head of the mill-dam, and just opposite to the bridge where the stream entered the pool; its site would be near the present centre of the junction of […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: A water-colour drawing in the Binns Collection shows this cross in an open space near a cottage. A church appears in the distance. The head of the cross is gone, but a portion of the square shaft is shown socketted in the customary way into a […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The word “cross” in Gothic letters appears on the 1848 map one and a half miles east of Wavertree. Mr. Cox thus describes it in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (volume for 1895): “On the roadside, near Well Lane, stood the […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Mr. Hope writes in his Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England: “There is a well here which has the reputation of being haunted, a fratricide having been committed there. It was a haunt of pick-pockets and other disorderly characters. It is now built over, […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: This holy well is referred to in the following terms in the Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey:- Grant in frankalmoign from Robert, son of Richard de Allerton, to God and St. Werburgh of Warburton and the canons there with the consent of Gilbert, son of Robert de […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: In the Binns Collection, vol. ii., p. 26, an illustration is given of this structure, consisting of a classical pillar carried on three steps. Adjoining it are the stocks, so arranged that the culprits sit on the bottom step. The pillar may have carried a sun-dial, […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: Considerable doubt exists as to the history of this structure. Three views of it are given in the Binns Collection in the Liverpool Free Library; two of them are practically identical, showing an Early Gothic arched recess in a wall, below which is a well square […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The pedestal of this cross was dug up by the  gravedigger a few years ago and has been left above ground in the churchyard. It is of rough stone and much time-worn. The stone measures five feet square at the base, is two feet thick, and […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: The site is on the southerly side of the road, between Liverpool and Prescot, distant three miles in a south-westerly direction from the latter town. The remains consist of a portion of the shaft, four feet six inches in height and twelve inches square, socketted into […]

From The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire by Henry Taylor: These words occur on the 1848 six-inch ordnance map close to some old cottages, about one hundred yards to the north of the church. They have recently been pulled down. The well, when I saw it (in April, 1900), was a walled-in dipping well, on the […]