Details

The monument includes a cross base built into a slight hedge bank on the west
side of Green Lane, 300m north of Strickland House Farm. It is one of four
crosses which functioned as waymarkers on the medieval route from Wigan north
to Chorley.
The base, which is Listed Grade II, is cut from a single block of local
gritstone and measures 0.82m by 0.69m with the wider face to the east. It
stands 0.44m high and tapers slightly towards the top. The socket hole is
0.34m by 0.32m and 0.35m deep.
The surface of the road to the east is excluded from the scheduling although
the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 1 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the
medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. In addition to
serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith
amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside
crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and
otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes
linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious
function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners
and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on
pilgrimages.
Over 350 wayside crosses are known nationally, concentrated in south west
England throughout Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type
of stone cross. A small group also occurs on the North York Moors. Relatively
few examples have been recorded elsewhere and these are generally confined to
remote moorland locations.
Outside Cornwall almost all wayside crosses take the form of a `Latin' cross,
in which the cross-head itself is shaped within the projecting arms of an
unenclosed cross. In Cornwall wayside crosses vary considerably in form and
decoration. The commonest type includes a round, or `wheel', head on the faces
of which various forms of cross or related designs were carved in relief or
incised, the spaces between the cross arms possibly pierced. The design was
sometimes supplemented with a relief figure of Christ and the shaft might bear
decorative panels and motifs. Less common forms in Cornwall include the
`Latin' cross and, much rarer, the simple slab with a low relief cross on both
faces. Rare examples of wheel-head and slab-form crosses also occur within the
North York Moors group. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed
base or show no evidence for a separate base at all.
Wayside crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval
religious customs and sculptural traditions and to our knowledge of medieval
routeways and settlement patterns. All wayside crosses which survive as earth-
fast monuments, except those which are extremely damaged and removed from
their original locations, are considered worthy of protection.

The cross on Green Lane survives well in its original position to the west of
the road in spite of the loss of the shaft and head. It is one of a group of
four medieval crosses intended as waymarkers on the route between Wigan and
Chorley. These crosses provide important evidence of the medieval route and
serve to remind us of medieval travellers and the importance of religion in
medieval life.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Margery, I D, Roman Roads in Britain, (1957), 100

Source: Historic England