More information : 'Headless Cross' which is shown by Bryant (a) and Heaton (c) at SJ 58296794 is mentioned temp James I (b). (1) All that remains of the cross, is the socket stone, which is mounted on a modern block. It is situated at SJ 58256779 - See survey. See GP AO/61/289/3 Cross Socket Stone from the East. (2) The socket stone, which is situated in a roadside hedge at SJ 58276783, is 0.7m square, 0.35m high. The socket is 0.3m square, 0.15m deep. 1:2500 survey on permatrace. (3) The socket stone is set within the modern hedge, on a modern plinth at SJ 58256779. The Stone is 0.7m square and 0.35m heigh, the socket is 0.3m square and 0.15m in depth with a flat base. Tool marks are evident on all the external faces of the Stone and on the sides of the socket including the base. The SE corner of the Stone is chamfered. The block has been carved from red Sandstone. Attention should also be drawn to a stone of similar form at SJ 58546784, SJ 56 NE 30 and Long Stone at SJ 58926768 SJ 56 NE 14. All three stones lie either on or close to the parish boundary and may therefore represent boundary markers. The two socketed Stone may have contained Stone Shafts, alternatively they may be pad Stones from a demolished building. (4)
SJ 5824 6777. The Headless Cross on Tarporley Road 230m NW of Greenlands. Scheduled RSM No 25697. A red sandstone cross base set on a modern concrete plinth in the line of the hedge on the W side of the Tarporley Road. The cross base stands in its original position beside the medieval road to Vale Royal Abbey which later became part of a turnpike. (See also SJ 56 NE 14 and 30). This was probably one of the seven crosses destroyed by Puritan iconoclasts in the 17th century leading to a case in the Star Chamber. (5)
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