Listed Building record MDO9033 - Crossbase 90m SE of Milton Abbey Church, Milton Abbas

The Market Cross : This was demolished when the old town was pulled down in 1786. Only the socket-stone of the cross remains and this octagonal stone marks the site in the park where the cross is said to have stood. The structure was in the centre of the widest part of Market Street ... it had an ascent of .. thirty steps .. <2,3>

The remains of this market cross consist solely of the socket stone, situated in parkland. The stone is 0.9m. square, but the top corners have been chamfered. There is a mortise 0.3m. square in the top of the stone. The chamfered corners, which give an octagonal plan to the upper part of the stone, are a common feature of 14th/15th centuries. crosses. See ground photograph. <4>

Base of Market Cross. Grade II. <5>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 79940226) Cross (NR) (Remains of)

<2> Pope, A, 1906, Old Stone Crosses of Dorset, 69-71 (Bibliographic reference). SWX1408.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1904, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1904, 1 (Serial). SDO17.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 30-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> DOE (HHR), 1983, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: North Dorset District, 56 (Scheduling record). SDO17556.

OCT-1985

<6> English Heritage, 2005, Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England: Dorset (Revised) (Monograph). SDO17438.

<7> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 199 (Monograph). SDO136.

Of the northern third of the town, comprising the former Market Street and High Street, very little remains. It was destroyed in the garden landscaping and only one cottage (12) and the base of a presumed Market Cross survive; the latter, a roughly-shaped block of stone with a square mortice for the cross-shaft, lies on the grass lawn about 100 yds. E.S.E. of (1).

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201886 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 14 2024 3:57PM