With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, members & friends
Cirencester’s High Cross – the cross that moved!
It looks as if it has always been where it now stands, and admirers both locals and visitors can reasonably think so, but in fact the fine stone cross standing in its own space in Cirencester’s West Market Place is now in the fourth location of its long history. It has already been here for nearly a century but has a much earlier history too.
This was the town’s medieval High Cross or Market Cross and could be as early as 14th century in date. A deed of 1413 mentions a Nova Crux (new cross), which implies that there already were others. Maybe not all are of the same early date, but the town certainly did have an impressive number, six in all and placed at significant locations in its streets.
Medieval crosses had specific functions, sited in the most frequented parts of town and at key road junctions, acting as gathering points and always as a call to devotion and silent reminder of Christ’s crucifixion. One stood of course in the churchyard, and three others at points which are still recognised as key traffic routes today: at the end of Castle Street where it meets Sheep Street, another where Lewis Lane/Querns Lane crosses the bottom of Cricklade Street, and a third at the end of Dyer Street leaving the town centre.
Two were in the Market Place proper: the so-called pig cross (pig market) roughly opposite the Waterloo Passage, and at the ‘top of the town’ in pride of place was the High Cross, situated at its most significant gathering spot. This is still remembered locally by some as Jefferies Corner (where Vodafone is today). The medieval buildings which had filled this end of the central area were cleared away in 1825-30 and the open space restored.
By that time all these crosses had lost their real purpose and had deteriorated, also becoming traffic obstructions and so they too were cleared away. They’ve all been completely lost, except the High Cross which was rescued and so has come down to the present day. Its benefactor was the 2nd Earl Bathurst who in the 1780’s offered it a home in Cirencester Park – two homes in fact as it was moved firstly to the Cathedral Firs area in the woods and sometime before 1888 when OS maps show it close to the Wood House, becoming a feature of one of the Rides through the Park. Along with nearby Alfred’s Hall, an early folly building built between 1721-32, it was one of the Park’s destination points for visitors, both individuals and in groups. For walkers the Hall still holds its attraction deep in the woods.
In the West Market Place, buildings were cleared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, allowing the space which we now enjoy to be opened up. This also gave the opportunity for the return of the Cross into the town, its fourth and hopefully final move, mooted in 1911 and achieved in 1927. The instigator was again the Lord Bathurst of the day, the 7th Earl, in a process well recorded in the Wilts & Glos Standard at the time.
One report was effusive about the care which the estate workmen had taken in dismantling and resiting this heavy stone cross ‘with an absolute absence of damage.’ Today it is a listed historic structure, still looking well cared for and respected, and all in local stone. Cirencester historian Samuel Rudder described the original cross as standing on a 10ft square base with four steps, but it is less so now although its various components still remain clearly preserved.
Above the base is a striking decorated quatrefoil pedestal, from which extends an octagonal shaft with a boss of carved but now decayed decoration. At a much later date, a heavy stone cross was added; it was described as ‘ponderous’ and still seems over-dominant today.
Landscaping in the 1970s has given us today’s open space, close to the west and north doors of the parish church and in a sensitive location. It has been well recorded in various illustrations, postcards etc and has come a long way from Rudder’s description of it in its original position around the corner as ‘in a very mutilated state.’
David & Linda Viner
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