Bewys Cross

The purpose of the cross seems most likely to have been to mark the old mouth of the Avon, the access to the port of Bristol, for the benefit of sailors approaching from the south and turning upriver north of the now vanished Dumball Island.

Local tradition has it that sailors used it to show their gratitude to God for their safe return by leaving donations for the Church, and there is a hole in one of the steps which is said to have received their coins.

There may be an echo in both cross-names of the medieval legendary hero Sir Bevis of Hampton, and it may or may not be a coincidence that the site of Bewys Cross was in the tithing of Shirehampton, which was in early medieval times called simply Hampton.

There is a mention in 1551[2] of a place called Bewehurste at Compton in the nearby parish of Almondsbury, which is of uncertain relevance.

Reputedly the local "squires", the Miles family, had the cross moved from the riverbank and re-erected in Kingsweston Lane, nearly opposite the entrance to their mansion, King's Weston House, probably at some time between 1863 and 1868.