Mab's Cross

Infobox Historic building


caption=Mab's Cross in 2005
name=Mab's Cross
location_town=Wigan, Greater Manchester
location_country=England
map_type=Greater Manchester
latitude=53.551132
longitude=-2.626076
architect=
client=
engineer=
construction_start_date=
completion_date=13th century
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=
style=
size=

Mab's Cross, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, is a stone cross probably dating from the 13th century gbmappingsmall|SD58520626. The remains of the cross are a one metre square dressed gritstone block convert|0.57|m|ft high on top of a stone plinth and are protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II* listed building.cite web |title=Mab's Cross |url=http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=41800 |publisher=Pastscape.org.uk Retrieved on 30 December 2008.] cite web |title=Mab's Cross, Wigan |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=484960 |publisher=Images of England Retieved on 18 May 2008.] It was originally one of four stone crosses used as waymarkers along the medieval route from Wigan to Chorley. The cross no longer stands in its original position, having been moved across the road in 1922 as part of a road widening scheme.cite web |title="Mab's Cross" - legend and reality |url=http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/Mabs_Cross.htm |author=Bob Blakeman |publisher=Wigan Archaeological Society Retrieved on 19 June 2008.]

History

Legend

According to local legend surrounding the cross, it is named after Lady Mabel Bradshaw. The legend says that when Sir William Bradshaw, her husband, failed to return from the crusades she married a Welsh knight; when Sir William returned from a ten year campaign he murdered his wife's new husband in Newton-le-Willows while he was trying to escape.cite web |title=The Legend of Mab's Cross |url=http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/LinkMabs.html |author=Adrian Morris |publisher=Wigan Archaeological Society Retrieved on 19 June 2008.] Lady Mabel did penance for her unintentional bigamy by walking from Haigh Hall to a stone cross in Wigan "bare footed and bare legged" once a week as long as she lived. In another version of the legend, the Welsh knight is named as Henry Teuther, Sir William is absent for seven years and was on pilgrimage rather than a crusade, also the penance involving the cross in not mentioned.

Reality

Sir William Bradshaw and his wife were real people. Sir William married Mabel Norris in 1295; she was the heiress of Blackrod and Haigh. His absence was not due to a pilgrimige or crusades. On 1 November 1315, ['The city and parish of Manchester: Introduction', "A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4" (1911), pp. 174–187. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41404. Retrieved on 4 August 2008.] Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea, and Sir William Bradshaw rebelled against Thomas Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Lancaster. ['Liverpool: The castle and development of the town', "A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4" (1911), pp. 4–36. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41370. Retrieved on 4 August 2008.] The rebellion was ended when the Deputy Sheriff of Lancashire defeated the rebels in battle north of the Ribble; Bradshaw escaped and became an outlaw. In 1319, it was assumed that Sir William was dead. He returned to his estates after the Earl of Lancaster was executed following his defeat at battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322. Sir William was convicted and imprisoned in Kenilworth Castle, and later Pontefract Castle, before he was released in 1324. Rather than killing his wife's husband on Newton-le-Willows, it was Sir William himself who was slain there. On 16 August 1333, Sir William was killed in Newton-le-Willows in a fight with members of the Radcliffe family. There is no evidence that Lady Mabel remarried, either before or after her husband died, or that she did penance at the cross.

ee also

*Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
*Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester

References