More information : [NZ8149 0833] Lady Cross. Shaft fallen in gutter by
roadside and destroyed by workmen on road about 1939.
Broken shaft set up by road Oct. 1955. Height 18" approx.
Modern(18th cent)inscriptions (1)
NZ 8145 0832. Lady Cross wayside cross, north of the A171 and 20m
west of the Barnby turn-off. Scheduled RSM No 25643. The Lady Cross
survives as a stone base and broken shaft. The base is of local
sandstone, measuring 0.48m by 0.5m and standing 0.11m high. The
shaft is set into a socket and measures 0.2m by 0.28m with the
wider faces to the N and S. It is 0.6m high. The shaft is inscribed
with sculpted letters which are largely indecipherable but can be
interpreted as an indication of the direction to Whitby and
Guisborough. The lettering on the S face is in mirror writing. The
inscription serves to convert the stump of a late medieval wayside
cross into a waymarker of the 18th century. The Lady Cross has been
set up close to its original position where it marks the junction of
the old High Street out of Whitby and the track from Grosmont Priory
to the ridgeway across Egton Low Moor which is now the A171. The line
of the medieval ridgeway is marked to the W by the place name
Stanegate where it turns down into Eskdale. The cross is recorded as
a place name only on OS 1:10000 of 1976. (2)
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