The St.Bartholomew's Survey
The church
The crosses in Wilmslow parish
Wilmslow has a rich heritage to crosses, which are distributed throughout the parish. These are some of the ones, that get mentioned.
The Styal cross has recently been restored as an Irish inspired high cross, there is some debate about the authenticity of this, but it would be nice to have a pre-conquest cross in the parish (but see below.)
There is a Wilmslow cross, which stood at the top of Cliff Road (it is still marked on the 1908 maps). I have been informed, by somebody who grew up on the property, that the foundations are still there and have (or had) roses growing out of it. No shaft though.
There is also another cross at Fulshaw (right at the roundabout that brings the A34 from the Bypass). Again the in it current form the base is authentic, although shifted from its original position and the shaft is a reconstruction.
All three are probably medieval parish crosses.
A further candidate, is the sundial in front of the Parish church, which has a very unlikely base, and looks much more of a late Gothic preaching cross than a sundial (but it would be a very nice touch of the Presbyterians to have reused it so costeffectively and successfully in the 17th century. (Compare Northenden, where something similar happened)
There is NO evidence that any of these crosses are pre-conquest - unlike Sandbach and Prestbury, we have no decorated cross-shafts, which could be connected to Mercian crosses. Their crosses were found during the alterations in the 19th century around the church.
(More to follow)
Birgitta Hoffmann