Wymondham Market Cross

The iconic Market Cross is one of Wymondham's best known and loved landmarks. I visited the other day and a number of questions surfaced as I photographed it.

What Cross?

"What is the old building at the top of the hill?" I remember asking a friend on my first visit to Wymondham.

"Oh! You mean the market cross," he said.

"No, the wooden framed octagonal building," I said.

Norfolk Heritage Explorer indicates that there was originally a medieval cross on this site which was lost to fire in 1615 (or 1616 - clocks in those days could be anything up to a year out). They built a market cross to replace it which was completed in 1618. Wikipedia defines a market cross as:

a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron.

Why is That Man Walking in Front of My Camera?

It's a nice broad street and I had spent a few moments framing the photo so it was fairly evident what I was doing. Did anonymous-black-watch-man really need to walk right in front of me just as I snapped the picture? Readers will be relieved to hear that I got my own back by scowling darkly at the back of his head.

How Long Does it Take to Make a Market Cross?

I suppose this is one of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions since there are many factors to consider. There is no record of how long it took to build the original medieval cross but it is thought to have appeared circa 1066. The market cross building that replaced it is estimated to have taken around two years to build. That building was restored first in 1863 and again in 1989. The skills used to build the original structure will have been in shorter supply centuries later and by 1989, the market cross's protected status would have meant that all work would have to meet prescribed standards.

The different circumstances mean that it is difficult to make any meaningful comparison across the ages. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to know how those builders of yore would regard Liz Truss, the MP for South West Norfolk and then Prime Minister and her chance(llo)r Kwasi Kwarteng who used their free market expertise to make a very big market cross in just one afternoon with their 2022 mini-budget.

I include a loosely connected bit of music with each blog entry just in case it wasn't clear what I was writing about. To celebrate Wymondham market cross, what better than Jump by Kriss Kross?

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