This area was part of the Abbey precinct and originally a graveyard (an excavation in 1993 discovered human remains from c1020). Over the years the townspeople encroached onto the area until during the 13th Century Abbot Colerne gave it to them. The market area was delineated by St Paul's Church to the north and the White Lion Inn to the south spilling over to the west and east. The buildings on the north side of Gloucester Street are from a later date.
The Cross is presumed to have been erected around 1490, paid for by locals. When John Leland (1506-1552. Henry VIII's antiquary) visited the town in 1542 he described it; There is a right fair and costly piece of worke in the market-place, made al of stone, and curiusly voultid for poore market folks to stande dry when rayne cummith. There be 8 great pillars and 8 open arches, and the work is 8 square: one great pillar in the middle berith up the voulte. It is one of the finest surviving examples. It has been repaired many times, including just before 1800 by the Earl of Suffolk, in 1883 when £140 was raised by public subscription, between 1909 and 1912 by the Borough at a cost of £700 and in 1950 for £909 18s. 7d. The last major work, mainly cleaning, was completed in 1991 at a cost of £53,000, a large part of which was an English Heritage grant and the rest was raised from donations. The donors' names are displayed on an illuminated manuscript in the Mayor's Parlour. However the base of central column is still worn away from thousands of bottoms sitting there! In 1995 a large sum, including £109,000 from North Wilts District Council and £5,000 from the County Council was used to re-pave the area around the cross.
During Victorian times the Cross was not treated very well. Richard Jefferies (1848-1887, a journalist and writer) reported in 1867 that: The cross is now looked upon with very little veneration. Vehicles are run into it for a temporary shelter, and the pillars are covered with printed bills of different colours; men out of work and other idlers have their great rendezvous.
Source: Charles Vernon
