Bristol High Cross

[2] The material was oolitic limestone but, as this was susceptible to frost damage, this was subsequently painted in colours of blue, gold, red and vermilion.

The following year, Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester, was beheaded there for his part in the Epiphany Rising against Bolinbroke who was now King Henry IV.

In 1603, James I was proclaimed King of England by recorder George Snigge and the city dignitaries standing at the cross in their finery.

In 1733, a council meeting recorded the complaint that it was too associated with Catholicism (“Consider that we are protestants, and that popery ought effectually to be guarded against in this Nation… a ruinous and superstitious Relic, which is at present a public nuisance”) and in the same year a nearby silversmith, John Vaughan, (who occupied the building later known as the Dutch House) complained that the cross threatened his life and property whenever there was a high wind and so persuaded the magistrates to have the cross taken down.

In October 1764, Dean Cutts-Barton then gave it to Henry "the Magnificent" Hoare and the materials except the very worn lower columns were carted away to adorn his grand estate of Stourhead in Wiltshire, where it was rebuilt in 1765.

[11] Norton inspected the original closely to copy its design and then engaged John Thomas, the celebrated mason and stone carver who had recently worked upon the new Palace of Westminster, to construct the body of the cross.

The funds for the work were exhausted after only one statue had been completed – of Edward III – and so the replica stood for many years with the other alcoves remaining empty.

[11] The upper stage of the replica was saved by fundraising and re-erected during a small ceremony in 1956 in nearby Berkeley Square in Bristol.

The cross is now at the entrance to the gardens of the Stourhead estate
Black and white sketch from c1900 depicting 1704-1733 period, looking east from Corn Street to Wine Street, Bristol . The church tower visible is that of Christ Church with St Ewen, Bristol . On the far left of the image, on the north side of the road is the Register Office (previously the old Council House ). In the centre of the junction can be seen the Bristol High Cross, and on the right of the image, on the south side of Wine Street is The Dutch House , damaged during the Bristol Blitz . The street scene shows a lot of people, a horse and cart, and a sedan chair .
The cross is shown at the centre of Robert Ricart's map of Bristol, in the ms. The Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar . He was the common clerk of the town from 1478 to 1506, and his drawing was the first such plan of an English town. [ 7 ]
The south prospect of the cross (1673)
The cross in its second location beside the cathedral, by Samuel Scott c.1750
The replica on College Green in 1890, by Charles Hern
The surviving piece, now in Berkeley Square, Bristol
A statue of Edward III from the High Cross exhibited at the British Library