Medieval Cross Base

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Overview

Cross base of medieval date. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1442825
Date first listed:: 13-Feb-2017
List Entry Name:: Medieval Cross Base

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1442825
Date first listed:: 13-Feb-2017
Date of most recent amendment:: 19-Jul-2021
List Entry Name:: Medieval Cross Base
Location Description:: Medieval cross base situated in the verge adjacent to Preston Lancaster Road (A6), at the west end of Ripon Place, Catterall, about 109m south-east of the junction of Joe Lane and the A6. National Grid Reference SD 49815 42330.

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Lancashire
District:: Wyre (District Authority)
Parish:: Claughton
National Grid Reference:: SD4981542330

Summary

Cross base of medieval date.

Reasons for Designation

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.

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.

Details

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.

Sources

Books and journals
Taylor, H, The Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire, (1906), 147
Other
Matthews,R, Archaeological Watching Brief Report - Joe Lane, Catterall, (2021), L-P: Archaeology

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

The listed building(s) is/are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s 1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.