14 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



Moorhead Cross, Forton. Shepherd Hill Cross, Claughton. 



Potter Breck Cross, Bay Horse. Sturzaker Cross, Garstang Station. 



Poulton Market Cross. Whittingham's Cross, Barnacre. 



Ringing Hill Cross, Garstang 

 Station. 



This brings up an important point. The vast majority of those which 

 remain, being either wayside crosses or landmarks, he in hedgerows where 

 they are liable to be removed or even destroyed by anyone who finds them to be 

 in the way of his operations or inconvenient for his business, and unless they 

 are scheduled under a statutory town-planning scheme, it may not be long, 

 in these days of rapid change and development, before few are left, and even 

 those few so removed from their original site as to be of little value as marking 

 their ancient station and purpose. None within this area have so far been 

 scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act, 

 1913, as amended by the Ancient Monuments Act, 1931, and in view of the 

 magnitude of the task before the Ancient Monuments Board and the Office 

 of Works, whose list already includes more than 3,000 monuments, it would 

 seem unlikely that the ancient cross remains, mostly boulders slotted for a cross, 

 would be considered important enough to receive priority over larger 

 monuments of greater intrinsic and national interest. 



Action such as I have suggested under a statutory town-planning scheme 

 would seem the only means available for insuring their preservation, or, where 

 this is really impossible, provision in such a scheme that they shall not be 

 disturbed until proper and sufficient records have been taken under expert 

 supervision, normally that of the local representative of the Ancient Monuments 

 Board. 



In assessing the value of any individual cross or its remains, it is important 

 to have a clear understanding of its purpose, which in some cases may make 

 the position of more importance than the remains themselves, while in others 

 the reverse may be the case. Not all of them had, as might be supposed, a 

 religious origin, though in some cases it is evident that those originally put 

 up as landmarks and otherwise have, in the course of time, become objects 

 of veneration. In the proceedings of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian 

 Society for 1898 such crosses are divided into nine classes, as follows : — 



1 . Preaching crosses. 6. The cross at cross roads. 



2. Churchyard crosses. 7. Crosses at holy wells. 



3. Roadside or weeping crosses. 8. Sanctuary crosses. 



4. Market crosses. 9. Crosses as guide posts, 



5. Boundary crosses and meare memorial and murder 

 stones. crosses. 



The first in the list, preaching crosses, are probably the oldest of all. 

 Generally, they will be found to be synonymous with the churchyard crosses. 

 At places where there was no church, a cross was erected to mark the preaching 

 place. The church being subsequently built there, the two are found in close 

 juxtaposition, as at Garstang, Lytham, Bispham and elsewhere. Almost 

 invariably the cross is to be found at the south side of the chancel, if in its 

 original position. It might seem that in such surroundings its preservation 

 was assured, and no other action, whether under a statutory planning scheme 



