Ancient Cross and Pilgrim Seat
By Icarus
Jun 21, 2004, 19:02
Two artefacts linked with the history of Tickhill are to be seen on Doncaster Road.
One is the stump of an ancient stone cross standing on the east side of Doncaster Road, as it leaves Tickhill. It has been suggested that this stump could be all that remains of a cross believed to stand in the Market Square before the erection of the Buttercross in 1777.
However, T.W.Beastall’s book ‘Tickhill: Portrait of an English Country Town’ (Published 1995) suggests that this stump cross gave its name to a nearby field recorded as Cross Flatt in a survey done before the enclosure of Common Land in 1765-67. As the field was identified by its proximity to a cross as early as the 1760’s, it is unlikely that this cross was originally the old market cross from the Market Square. Also, a sketch of the old market cross on the Dickinson estate map of 1724 does not resemble the stump now surviving at Dadesley. This means that it is more likely to have been an original feature of the earlier Dadesley settlement. It is now Listed Grade II.
The stump is an eight sided pillar, but not a regular octagon as the sides are of different lengths. At the top can be seen a central depression with what seems to be a metal insert. This was perhaps a rod used to connect an upper portion of the cross (now missing) with the base.
The second artefact is to be seen in the front wall of No. 165 Doncaster Road. This is known locally as the Pilgrims’ Seat because it seems to have been shaped with two angled indentations where people perching on the stone could rest their feet. Tickhill may well have been on the pilgrim trail from Roche Abbey to the Carmelite Friary founded in Doncaster in 1350, which was a place of pilgrimage. It seems likely that the stone was in place beside an original track, the present wall being built around the existing stone.
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