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Two views of the High Cross

GBR/J5/1 Rental of all the houses in Gloucester A.D. 1455, ed. W. H. Stevenson (1890)

A cross stood at the main crossroads in the centre of Gloucester by the mid-13th century.  By the mid-1400s it was known as the ‘high cross’ and was being used as a conduit for water piped from Robins Wood Hill.  It was depicted as an octagonal structure over 10.3m/34ft high with a crocketed spire and had two storeys.  A lower storey had blind crocketed arches (pierced by water pipes) while the upper storey had eight crocketed niches containing statues of sovereigns. The cross was rebuilt several times, the last being in 1712.