Hurst Cross

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 18 Sep 2009

According to the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (link no loner available) Hurst Cross was erected in 1868 on what was assumed to be the site of a former cross. In the 1860s older local inhabitants remembered a heap of stones placed in a circular form by the junction although these had been gradually removed. A committee of local businessmen and members of the Hurst Local Board, under the chairmanship of Handel Wallwork, arranged for the collection of subscriptions, the release of the necessary land from the Earl of Stamford, and the design of the cross. The foundation stone was laid by Oldham Whittaker on Easter Monday, 1868 in a colourful ceremony which concluded with a dinner for 170 gentlemen at the Hurst Mechanics' Institute. Whittaker, with his brother John, was the largest employer in Hurst. Besides commemorating the earlier cross, it was suggested that the new cross might be associated with the recent extension of parliamentary democracy following the passing of the Reform Act. The cross itself was erected within four months though it was not to be until October 1869 that the Hurst Memorial Cross Committee finally handed it over it to the Hurst Local Board. The finished memorial was surrounded by railings and included a lamp.

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