Whaley Bridge (Derbyshire)
	OS Grid Ref: SK 01655 79615 53º18’48.44”N 1º58’35.86”W

Whaley Bridge nestles between the Derbyshire hills. It is a pleasant place, and although it is quite some distance to Manchester, such has been the effect of the Industrial Revolution in this area that from Whaley Bridge to Manchester there are very few substantial gaps between the houses.

The cross stands within this curved enclosure.
No doubt there is a local story to this, but I do not know it.

On the southern side of Whaley Bridge is a curved enclosure - pictured above - a few metres across. In the centre of the enclosure is the lower part of a Saxon cross, topped by a stone which, before it was damaged, will have had a square shape in plan. This is a case of an old monument, not necessarily native to this spot, being reused for a different purpose. Here, that purpose was as a mediaeval boundary cross for the parish of Hope. Hope was an extremely large parish, and it required many boundary markers, which were used to stake out the territory when other natural features, such as watercourses, could not be used. In the case of this location, there is no nearby watercourse, since the cross stands at the top of a hill. It is one of those hills whose shape, steeply dipping to the north, more gently to the south, makes it quite difficult to decide where the top actually is, but it is at any rate at the point where the road levels out after the steep climb from the centre of the village.

There is farmland to the south of the cross, and I feel that I should warn you, in case you are the type who is easily distracted while driving, that yes, that peculiar-looking animal in the field across the way from this cross and its enclosure really is a llama - or at least it was in January 2001, when I visited the spot to photograph the cross; by the time you visit, there may be more, or none.

This Saxon cross shaft is very worn, but what remains of the carving indicates a double band, and immediately above that, four panels. There are within these panels some slight traces of carving, but nothing remains that is clear enough to interpret. The mediaeval addition sits very oddly on this truncated shaft. The shaft is quite similar in size to the one at Brailsford.

The enclosure containing the cross is at the top of the hill, where the houses stop and the fields start.
Just right, when you think about it, for a boundary cross.

It's hard to decide whether this page more naturally belongs to the "Crossing the Millennia" or the "Mediaeval Monuments" section of this web site, since this cross is both mediaeval and pre-Norman, depending on what you want to say about it.

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site.                                             Latest update: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 12:35
Links on my pages can point to other web-sites. If you find that the administrators of those web-sites have made changes which mean you can't access them, please let me know, so I can update or remove the links. As far as I know, none of my links point to sites likely to contain offensive material - but if you discover otherwise, please let me know, as I would like to remove such links from my pages.
return to my home page.	Frequently asked Questions	send me an e-mail
©1996 to 2003: Christopher J. Tolley