Shop Front Stories
OBJECT: Market Cross Head
LOCATION: The Market Cross
Here, outside the Tourist Information and Post Office is where we find the story for our next object related to the Market Cross – the cross head. You can take a seat around its base while we explain the story. So, whilst not directly connected to the buildings round here, the Market Cross (or more accurately not a cross but a column topped by a cubic sandstone block about one foot in size) does represent the thriving market town that developed for Ambleside following the grant of the Charter in 1650. The original location of the Market Cross is actually back where we came from at our last stopping point on the trail route. Have a look at the slideshow of images here to see a representation of the area by William Green. It is not known when the cross was moved to its current position but it was possibly when the Old Market Hall and the Courthouse were built in the nineteenth century. The original top of the Market Cross can be found in The Armitt. Today it has a replacement cubic sandstone head. This new block has the initials GB of Gwain Braithwaite, who died in 1653 and who almost certainly paid for the original, which also has GB carved into it along with the date. Now is the time to reveal the amazing story of the return of the original stone at the top of the column.
It seems likely that it was removed in the 1790s and taken to Calgarth Park, between Ambleside and Windermere, when a large house was built there by Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff in Wales. It was known to be there in 1928 and by this date had been converted to a sundial. In 1970 when Calgarth House was being renovated it was rescued from a skip and moved to Kent. Recognised for what it was in 2017 it was returned to Ambleside and to The Armitt where it can be seen together with the William Green etchings.
From this corner, turn off onto North Road which leads over Stock High Bridge. You will walk down the side of the Tourist Information Centre and Post Office, past the Rock Shop on the right until you are stood on the Bridge. We suggest you stand off the road on the cobblestones though so that you are not in the way of traffic or other walkers. You should be standing looking towards the water wheel opposite and this is our final stopping point. The walking time is approximately one minute.