Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

In the centre of Chapel-en-le-Frith is the Market Place, which is raised above the B5470 road which passes its edge en route to Whaley Bridge. A worn mediaeval cross stands there, mutely reminding people that one cannot worship both God and money. This is not the only ancient cross to be seen in town...

In the evening twilight, the mediaeval market cross stands next to the Christmas tree in the market place
Chapel-en-le-Frith, New Year's Day 2001

Just along the road from the market place is the gateway that leads into the churchyard of the Parish Church of St. Thomas Becket, where the shaft of a far older Anglian cross stands outside the south porch of the church.

St. Thomas's Church is surrounded by an extensive graveyard,
some of whose occupants go back more than 500 years.

There are two stumps to the west of the south porch.
On the left, surrounded by railings, is a sundial (missing its gnomon).
On the right is the shaft of a Saxon cross.
January 2001.

A notice on the porch explains that the church has been here since 1225. Although it is now the Parish Church, for a lot of its early history, this was not the Parish church, but rather a chapel in the Peak Forest, from which the town derives its name - "frith" being derived from the Old English word for "forest". The chapel was set up by local foresters who objected to the fact that their mother church, in Hope, was so far away. There were significant disagreements between the people who worshipped there and the church authorities for centuries about the status of the place. It was not until 1747 that the chapel was recognised as a Parish Church.


West	North	East	South
This cross shaft is very worn, but even so, traces of the carvings can be seen on all four faces - named above for the cross as it was oriented when photographed in January 2001. The amount of wear makes it difficult to trace some of the patterns of the carved lines, but on the narrow faces, there seem to be plaited designs running from top to bottom of the cross shaft. The west and east faces present more of a challenge to identify. Several of the strands on the east face seem to end up as snakes' heads, and there is at least the hint of a figure lying in a horizontal position towards the top of this face. On the west face, the combination of wear, weathering and lichen encrustation make it even harder to identify what is going on.

The documented history of the church suggests that all is not what it should be with the cross. After all, if this was an initiative in the early thirteenth century by local people, then whatever else it was, this is not a site with an authentic Anglian history. And so, after further research, it turns out. The cross was brought to this site just after the end of the first world war from its original location at Ollerenshaw Hall, two miles or so to the west (along one of the roads that runs between and parallel to the A6 and B5470. This is a clear warning to the unwary: if nine times out of ten, when you find an Anglo-Saxon cross outside a church, it indicates it's an Anglian or Saxon church foundation, there will always be the tenth time, when it isn't.

St. Thomas's Church is tucked away behind the houses and shops in the centre of the town.
Thursday is market day in town; on other days you can park on the market place cobbles,
a hundred metres or so from the church gate.

* The Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (and corresponding Latitude/Longitude) given at the top of the pages describing individual sites usually refer to the location of the closest or most prominent entrance to the site where the monument is to be found - e.g. a gate into a churchyard. For monuments located in open country, or at a significant distance from the site entrance as just defined, the co-ordinates usually refer to the exact location of the monument.
Please allow for a small error in the co-ordinates of up to a couple of dozen metres.

Thanks to the people at streetmap.co.uk, if you click on the Grid References in the magenta boxes on the site pages,
you'll see an extract from the relevant Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Landranger map!

As the official mapping agency of the United Kingdom Government, the Ordnance Survey produces the definitive maps of the country. They contain a wealth of information.
For more details, visit www,ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

Click here if you need an explanation of the terminology on these pages

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so that the headings used on these pages will then look like the following:

Click to go to Pre-Norman crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales	Read about the Saints
Click to go to Mediaeval crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales

Locality maps at this web-site have been developed using Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 (and later editions).

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