Market crosses can be found in the centres of many British towns and cities.[1] Although their origins are unclear, they are generally believed to derive from the High crosses or free-standing stones of the Early Mediaeval period.[1][a] In the Middle Ages they frequently became the focal point for marketplaces, where communities gathered to trade.[3]Historic England suggests that the presence of a cross in a marketplace may have served to “validate transactions”.[4] James Masschaele, in his study, The Public Space of the Marketplace in Medieval England, notes that marketplaces also served an important social function as a location for the “retailing of news and gossip”.[5] Their religious associations led to many crosses being damaged or destroyed during the Reformation and in the aftermath of the Civil War.[6][7]
The Oakham Market Cross dates from the 16th or 17th centuries.[8][9][b] 36 feet (11 m) in diameter,[9] a central stone shaft and eight encircling timber posts support a tiled roof. The stocks stand immediately adjacent to the central shaft.[10] They are unusual in that they have five openings,[11] rather than the more common four or six.[12] The cross and the stocks are both Grade I listed structures.[10][11] The group forms a Scheduled monument.[13]
^Elizabeth Williamson, in her 2003 revised volume, Leicestershire and Rutland, in the Pevsner Buildings of England series, suggests a date of the "late 17th century". The Victoria County History prefers the late 16th or early 17th centuries as a construction date.[8][9]
References
^ abGreen, Edward. "Stone Crosses". Building Conservation.com. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
^"Mercat Cross". Scotland Starts Here. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
