<< Our Photo Pages >> Ruther Cross - Ancient Cross in England in Yorkshire (North)
Submitted by johndhunter on Sunday, 30 June 2019 Page Views: 1827
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Ruther CrossCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 1.479 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Yorkshire (North) Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Guisborough
Map Ref: NZ6044514960
Latitude: 54.526328N Longitude: 1.067579W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Cross in Yorkshire (North)
Now located in a council estate at the end of a house on Hutton Lane in Guisborough. It is opposite Highcliffe Pirimary School but can’t be seen from the road because of a hedge. It is the remains of a wayside cross which marked where an ancient track called *Ruthergate ran south from the cross and climbed up Kemplah Hill where the hollow way which marked its route can still be seen. Its final destination is not known.
Stanhope White in his 1987 book “Standing Stones and Earthworks on the North Yorkshire Moors” page 31 also suggests that the cross may have had something to do with the one time leper colony at Hutton Lowcross. This was about ¾ of a mile to the south west of the cross at NZ 59652 14133. The site of this colony is shown on old OS maps with the date 1392 next to it.
*Ruthergate – In earlier charters sometimes called Rechergate, sometimes Rogergate and may also be the road in one of the charters known as the “Stone Road”. This latter name has caused speculation that its final destination may have been a quarry at Highcliff but no evidence for this has been found. On the 1856 OS map Ruthergate is marked and shows it coming diagonally up Kemplah Hill and terminating nearby a Standing Stone (at about NZ 60356 14105 and long since gone) on Hill Plain.
Source: “Guisborough before 1900” Harrison & Dixon 1981 page 71
My Thoughts: Looking at the 1856 map the obvious route would be to join up with the Highcliff Road leading up to Guisborough Moor and beyond. For the traveller in times past going up onto the moor via Ruthergate and then the Highcliff Road would have had the added advantage of bypassing the Leper Colony which was next to another main route on to the Moor (though called Hutton Moor at this point)
The cross is Historic England List Entry Number 1159569 and a technical description of the cross can be found there. Pastscape also has information at Monument 28521
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