A buttercross, butter cross or butter market cross is a type of market cross associated with English market towns and dating from medieval times. The name originates from the fact that the crosses were located in market places, where people from neighbouring villages would gather to buy locally produced butter, milk and eggs. The fresh produce was laid out and displayed on the circular stepped bases of the cross.
Their design varies from place to place, but they are often covered by some type of roof to offer shelter. The roofs were generally added at a much later date than the construction of the original cross.
Known buttercrosses
Examples from most parts of England include:
Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire
Alnwick, Northumberland
Alveley, Shropshire
Bainton, Cambridgeshire
Barnard Castle, County Durham (Barnard Castle Market Cross) Barrow, Rutland Biddulph, Staffordshire Bingham, Nottinghamshire Bingley, West Yorkshire Brigg, Lincolnshire Bungay, Suffolk Burwell, Lincolnshire Castle Combe, Wiltshire Chagford, Devon Cheddar, Somerset (Market Cross, Cheddar) Chichester, West Sussex Chippenham, Wiltshire Corby Glen, Lincolnshire Cranwell, Lincolnshire Digby, Lincolnshire Dunster, Somerset (Dunster Butter Cross) Fishlake, Doncaster, South Yorkshire Grantham, Lincolnshire Gringley-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire Hallaton, Leicestershire Hooton Pagnell, South Yorkshire Kirkby Moorside, North Yorkshire Ludlow, Shropshire Maltby, South Yorkshire Mansfield, Nottinghamshire Market Drayton, Shropshire Marton, Lincolnshire Monk Bretton, South Yorkshire, Mountsorrel, Leicestershire Newport, Shropshire (Puleston Cross) Oakham Market Cross, Oakham, Rutland Otley, West Yorkshire Peterborough, Cambridgeshire Pontefract, West Yorkshire Preston, Lancashire Sarsden, Oxfordshire Salisbury, Wiltshire Scarborough, North Yorkshire Shepton Mallet, Somerset Somerton, Somerset Spilsby, Lincolnshire Stamfordham, Northumberland Swaffham, Norfolk Swinstead, Lincolnshire Tattershall, Lincolnshire Thatcham, Berkshire Tickhill, South Yorkshire Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire Winchester, Hampshire Witney, Oxfordshire Wymondham, Norfolk