Heritage Destroyed: Medieval Standing Crosses of Lincolnshire

Heritage Destroyed: Medieval Standing Crosses of Lincolnshire

Organised by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. Presented by Dave Start

Lincolnshire has the remains of about 200 later medieval stones crosses – all now in varying stages of decline. They were systematically destroyed by the iconoclasts of the Reformation (16th C) and the English Civil War (17th C) as idolatrous Catholic symbols - usually decapitated or demolished. Crosses which had a more secular function, such as market crosses, were sometimes spared in part. Most cross remains are now in our churchyards, but they have become one of the least regarded parts of Lincolnshire’s otherwise celebrated church architecture.

The website Medieval Standing Crosses of Lincolnshire (www.lincscrosses.org.uk) won the 2024 SLHA Flora Murray Award 2024

Cross on the Village Green at Gelston.

Image courtesy of Dave Start, www.lincolnshire medieval crosses