Image ID: 16293

The Abbey Cross, junction of Potter Street and Cheapside, Worksop, c 1950s

Potter Street - Cheapside
Worksop
England

This picture was taken from inside the 14th century arch of the priory gatehouse. The Priory was founded on March 3rd 1103. An initial grant of monies and lands was made which founded the great Priory by the De Lovetot Lords of the Manor. (The modern East End, however, was only constructed in the 1970s, through a legacy from a former choir-boy.) The Canons of St Augustine were to establish Worksop Priory for the worship of God and the service of the local community and was dedicated to St Mary & St Cuthbert. The gatehouse, a tudor addition to the Priory, is considered to be 'one of the most interesting buildings in the county,' which features pre-reformation statuary, a wide late perpendicular tracery window and an unusual projecting wayside shrine to house an image of the Virgin. Information from www.nottshistory.org.uk: "Perhaps the earliest extant documentary reference to Notts crosses is that in Richard de Lovetot's confirmation (apparently about 1161) of the gift of lands made by his father to the Priory of Worksop, which included "the meadow and land by the bound of Kilton, from the water unto the way under the gallows, towards the south, and by the crosses which he himself, and William his son, erected with their own hands, unto the moor," etc. One historian suggests the above recorded personal labour may have represented an act of penance or humility. The late Robert White, of Worksop, once said there was reason to believe a cross formerly stood in what is now called the Market Place, the right to hold a market and fair here having been granted by Edward I. Either that or the existing cross, in front of the Priory Gateway, was perhaps indicated in the allusion in the Register of Welbeck Abbey to the Cross at Worksop " which divided the Fee of the King and the Fee of the Lord of Wirksop and the Fee of Tikehull," etc. The parish-register, in 1656, specifically records, in one instance, the publication of banns of marriage "at the Market Cross, Worksop." The existing cross consists of five octagonal steps, one square one, a plinth, and a tapering octagonal shaft. The latter, several feet in height, is apparently complete, except for the loss of its head. An idealised engraving of the Priory Gateway published in 1778, treats the cross conventionally, and varies its features and details to quite unrecognisable extent. The earliest real representation of the cross appears to be that of Laird, 1813. In connection with the diverting of the public road through the Priory Gateway, about 1899, the cross was taken down, and rebuilt nearer the Gatehouse. It is said that the intervention of the Duke of Newcastle saved it from, destruction on this occasion."

Date: 1950

Organisation Reference: NCCN002905

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