Plaque number 14 can be found at this location.
This plaque can be found on the central support of the Poultry Cross.
The Poultry Cross itself is between Silver Street and the Market Place.
The O/S grid position is SU 14389 East 29824 North.
This structure known as the Poultry Cross as early as 1335, is one of four market crosses which formerly stood in Salisbury.
The others were the Cheese Cross, the Linen Cross and Bernewell Cross.
The low wall which enclosed this cross was removed in 1853.
During 1999 some repair work was carried out to the Poultry Cross. Fallen pieces of stonework had become a hazard to people walking underneath! A notice board was erected explaining the repair work. A photograph of this notice board is shown below.
The photograph captions on this notice board are:
Spalling Stonework
Angel's head
Buckler's 1810 view of the Cross
The text on this notice board is:
In Brief
Salisbury's historic Poultry Cross is about to be cleaned and have its stonework properly repaired - for the first time in fifty years.
The last time any work was done on the Cross was in 1984, when some stonework was repaired, but it was back in 1948 when the last real repairs were carried out, using proper stone blocks.
Regular checks on the Cross's safety have found small areas of loose stone, hence the safety barriers round it at present, and repair of this will be part of large scale work schedules for Spring 1999 and including cleaning and stone replacement. Work cannot start until consent has been given and there is no danger of frost, but when it does, it is expected to take about twelve weeks, leaving the Poultry Cross looking better than it has done for many years.
The Cross dates from the late fifteenth century, replacing an earlier cross, the old Poultry Cross, which had stood on this site for two hundred years before that. It consists of six piers topped with pinnacles, enclosing a hexagonal arcade, with a central column.
Originally, there was further vaulting beneath the roof of the Cross, which connected the carved angels' heads to the outer buttresses, and traces still remain of the ends of this vaulting. An earlier upper section of the Poultry Cross had been taken down in about 1727 and replaced by a new central pier with ball finials to the buttresses, and this in turn was replaced by the existing superstructure. of flying buttresses surrounding a central pinnacle with niches and a cross finial, only in 1852. At about this time, the lower part of the cross was extensively restored.
There is evidence that the Angels' heads on the central column were at one time coloured, with minute traces of this polychromy found in the crevices of the stonework.
The Cross was last repaired in 1984, but this was limited and didn't address the problem of spalling and corroding stonework and in addition, over the past 50 years many repairs had been carried out using inappropriate materials such as cement and resin bonding. During the first half of the nineteenth century, some parts of the building were re-modelled in brown Roman cement, some stones were replaced and earlier repairs to original fabric obscured. Later mortar repairs used "toned" cement, coloured with ingredients ranging from tea to cow dung. All of this makes accurate identification of the age of stonework on the Cross difficult, but the majority of the stone used in its construction was local Chilmark limestone, with some Portland stone, some Bath stone used for some of the pinnacle bases and some of the buttresses, and Doulting stone from Somerset in a 1948 restoration of some of the arches.
The last full survey of the Cross, to check for stonework condition and safety, occurred in 1995. Two more thorough surveys of the Cross were, however, carried out in 1998, as the basis for an application for Scheduled Monument Consent to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. This has to be obtained before any works, of repair or alteration, can be done to the Cross, which is a scheduled ancient monument.
A Scheduled Monument Consent application was made by the Council in October, following preparation of a detailed specification by consultants, and an inspection of the Cross in November by English Heritage Inspectors. English Heritage advises the department of Culture, Media and Sport on Schedule Monument Consent applications and recommends whether consent should be given or not. English Heritage and the Council have reached agreement on the form of repair and cleaning and with its backing Schedule Monument Consent should be given early in 1999, enabling work to start as soon as appropriate. An examination of the polychromy around the angels' heads, recommended by English Heritage, has recently been carried out by Nimbus Conservation of Yeovil, and this has been established as the remains of heraldic colouring.
Following the fall of a stone corbel from inside the roof of the Cross in early November, an immediate structural and safety survey was carried out, two other small areas inside the roof were made safe and a pinnacle was temporarily removed. It was consequently decided for safety reasons, to place fencing around the Cross and prohibit public access to it for the immediate future.
Work could begin as soon as consent is given, but due to the fact that the lime mortars and stone consolidants to be used in the conservation work cannot be used in freezing or very cold conditions, the actual work cannot be carried out until Spring 1999. Contracts for the work with stonework conservators should be drawn up by March.
The work of restoring and cleaning the Cross should take about twelve weeks, and during this time it will be closed to the public, but the finished Cross, cleaned and given a partial shelter coat, should be returned to its former glory and once more be an attractive and historic focal point within the city.
If one looks near the top of the poultry cross, one can find the words "RESTORED. 1852 & 1854 W OSMOND. MASON."
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