The many migrations of Northallerton's market cross

Most market crosses are not actually crosses at all. A few have become extremely fancy – Barnard Castle’s is the Butter Mart which doubles as a traffic obstacle outside the church while Richmond’s has grown into a massive obelisk over the reservoir which is beneath the market place – but most are simple columns of stone.

Bedale’s has a cross on top of its stone column, but most market crosses are of a more secular appearance: the village of Newsham has a weathervane on the top of its cross, Darlington has a stone pom-pom on the top of its cross whereas Guisborough has a sundial, a stone pom-pom and a weathervane.

They have since the Middle Ages had a religious element to them, a reminder that God is present in the bargain. A trader tempted to rip-off Mrs Short-Sighted Oldperson would look up as he counted out her change a few farthings short and see the stone column before him. It would remind him of the sanctity of the bargain and so Mrs Oldperson deserved her full farthings.

In Ripon, where the market cross must be the tallest in our area at 82ft high, it would be hard for anyone to avoid seeing it.

Last week we mentioned how it is 150 years almost to the day that Northallerton’s market cross was plucked up out of the ground as part of a radical reshaping of the high street which saw the old shambles (a covered meat market) and tollbooth demolished and replaced by the current town hall.

The shambles, market cross and tollbooth in Northallerton High Street that were swept away 150 years ago. The Fleece Inn, which still stands, is on the left of the picture

The market cross was taken to the home of local historian, solicitor and bailiff John Ingelby Jefferson, who lived in Standard House in the High Street, and we are extremely grateful to Colin Narramore for sending us a picture of the cross in Mr Jefferson’s back garden.

Northallerton town cross before 1913 in the garden of Standard House, Northallerton. Picture courtesy of Colin Narramore

King Henry I granted the Bishop of Durham permission to allow Northallerton to have a market on a Wednesday in 1127. Initially, this market, overlooked by a stone cross, was next to the church – presumably this is why the High Street is wide enough to park a couple of coaches here – but by the 16th Century, it had moved south and was in between the shambles and the tollbooth.

A tollbooth was where all the fees relating to a market were collected, where market regulations were drawn up and where market disputes were settled, so over the centuries it evolved into a town hall, and Northallerton, 150 years ago, was updating its municipal buildings.

Northallerton town cross continued its movement southwards in 1987 to its current position. Picture courtesy of Colin Narramore

And while the shambles and the tollbooth were demolished, the cross ended up in Mr Jefferson’s garden. Was their dispute about this, or was the cross considered too old-fashioned for the new-look town centre?

For 40 years, the cross remained at Standard House until, in 1913, it was moved back to the High Street, to the south of the new town hall.

In 1987 during a £350,000 revamp of the High Street, as Colin’s pictures show, the market cross continued its progress southwards when it was moved 100 yards to outside the Black Bull. It looks to have remained on the same spot during the most recent repaving.

The market cross outside the Black Bull in 2016 covered in poppies for Remembrance Sunday