Pilgrims Cross, Holcombe Moor

Pilgrims’ Cross stands on Holcombe Moor above the Irwell valley, a windswept expanse of heather and peat that rises to more than 370 metres. The present stone cross was set up in 1902 to mark the site of a twelfth-century wayside cross first recorded in 1176. Local names for the vanished cross include Whowell’s Cross and Chatterton’s Cross. The moor once formed part of the ancient forest of Tottington belonging to the Earl of Lancaster and later the Lacies. Travellers used the cross to gauge distance and keep their bearings in mist and snow. The cross guided pilgrims walking south to the great abbeys of Whalley and Canterbury. In 1225 a charter of Bretton Priory mentions three acres near Pilgrims’ Cross Shaw as a resting place for pilgrims. The Lacies themselves rode this route from their castles at Clitheroe and Pontefract to Lancaster Castle. The original foundation stone, a ton of local sandstone dressed by masons, was destroyed by vandals in 1901 and scattered into a nearby bog. Visitors today find a pair of Millstone Grit blocks standing on the open moorland. The monument is still used as a landmark by walkers and map-readers. The surrounding peat bogs and heather slopes stretch towards the distant Pennines. On clear days the view takes in the whole Irwell valley and the moors beyond. The cross remains a quiet reminder of medieval journeys across the Lancashire uplands.