Cross base in Brow Wood

Image: © Mick Borroff Taken: 7 Jan 2021

An inscribed gritstone block which appears to be a post-medieval wayside cross base with a deep square socket. Local folklore has its use as a plague stone and it could have been repurposed. Its inscription has a cross and below TH16910, but this appears to be upside down relative to its use as a cross base. The "0" appears in a smaller size suggesting a date of 1691 post-dating the plague. It is not recorded in this location on any old OS maps. It is possibly associated with the Thornthwaite packhorse bridge located some 700m NNE which is thought to date from as early as the 15th century and to be on a packhorse route linking Ilkley to Fountains Abbey and Ripon, possibly constructed by the abbey. 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.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0