{{Short description|Stone cross in Wigan, England}} {{About|the monument|the racehorse|Mabs Cross}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Use British English|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox building |image = Mab's Cross 2005 (cropped).jpg |caption = Mab's Cross in 2005 |name = Mab's Cross |location = [[Wigan]], [[Greater Manchester]], England |pushpin_map = Greater Manchester |coordinates = {{coord|53.55139|-2.62745|display=inline,title}} |completion_date = 13th century |designations = {{Designation list | embed = yes | designation1 = Grade II* Listed Building | designation1_offname = Mabs Cross | designation1_date = 10 July 1983 | designation1_number = {{NHLE|num=1384526|short=y|postscript=none}} }} }}
'''Mab's Cross''', in [[Wigan]], [[Greater Manchester]], England, is a stone cross probably dating from the 13th century with its first recorded mention taking place in 1277. It is one of four stone crosses originally used as waymarkers along the medieval route from Wigan to [[Chorley]].<ref name="pastscape" /> The cross no longer stands in its original position, having been moved across the road in 1922 as part of a road widening scheme.
==Structure== Mab's Cross is a [[scheduled ancient monument]].<ref name ="pastscape">{{Cite PastScape |mnumber=41800 |mname=Monument no. Mab's Cross|access-date=15 August 2014}}</ref> The monument is the remains of a 13th-century boundary cross in Standishgate, [[Wigan]]. The cross was moved from a site on the opposite side of the road in the early-20th century. The [[Grade II* listed]] structure has a metre-square, {{convert|0.57|m|ft|adj=on}} tall [[Ashlar|dressed]] [[plinth]] made of two courses of rectangular [[gritstone]] blocks. Mounted diagonally on the plinth is a large square cross base with the stump of the cross shaft set into it. On the plinth is a metal plaque relating the legend of Lady Mabel Bradshaigh.<ref name="NHLE">{{NHLE |num=1384526 |desc=Mabs Cross |access-date=15 August 2014}}</ref>
==History== ===Legend=== According to local legend, the cross is named after Lady Mabel Bradshaigh. The legend, recorded in a family history published in 1645, says that when Sir William Bradshaigh, her husband, failed to return from the [[crusades]] she married a Welsh knight. When Bradshaigh unexpectedly returned from a ten-year campaign, he murdered his wife's new husband in [[Newton-le-Willows]] while he was trying to escape.<ref name="legend">{{cite web |title=The Legend of Mab's Cross |url=http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/LinkMabs.html |author=Adrian Morris |publisher=Wigan Archaeological Society |access-date=19 June 2008 |archive-date=25 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925021828/http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/LinkMabs.html |url-status=live }} Retrieved on 19 June 2008.</ref> Lady Mabel did penance for her [[bigamy]] by walking from [[Haigh Hall]] to a stone cross in Wigan "bare footed and bare legged" once a week for as long as she lived.<ref name="legend" /> In another version of the legend, recorded by Norris of Speke in 1564, the Welsh knight is named as Henry Teuther, Sir William is absent for seven years on [[pilgrimage]] rather than a crusade and the penance involving the cross is not mentioned.<ref name="reality">{{cite web |title="Mab's Cross" - legend and reality |url=http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/Mabs_Cross.htm |author=Bob Blakeman |publisher=Wigan Archaeological Society |access-date=19 June 2008 |archive-date=6 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206000120/http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/History/Mabs_Cross.htm |url-status=live }} Retrieved on 19 June 2008.</ref>
===Reality=== Sir William Bradshaigh and his wife were real people. Bradshaigh married Mabel Norris, the heiress of [[Blackrod]] and [[Haigh, Greater Manchester|Haigh]], in 1295.<ref name="reality" /> His absence was not due to a pilgrimage or crusades. On 1 November 1315,<ref>'The city and parish of Manchester: Introduction', ''A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4'' (1911), pp. 174–187. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41404 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201013147/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41404 |date=1 December 2010 }}. Retrieved on 4 August 2008.</ref> Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea, and Bradshaigh [[Banastre Rebellion|rebelled]] against [[Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster]] in support of the king.<ref>'Liverpool: The castle and development of the town', ''A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4'' (1911), pp. 4–36. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41370. Retrieved on 4 August 2008.</ref> The rebellion ended when the [[High Sheriff of Lancashire|Deputy Sheriff of Lancashire]] defeated the rebels in battle north of the [[River Ribble]]. Bradshaigh escaped and was outlawed. In 1319 it was assumed he was dead,<ref name="reality" /> but he returned to his estates after the Earl of Lancaster's execution following defeat at the [[Battle of Boroughbridge]] on 16 March 1322.<ref name="reality" /> He was convicted and imprisoned in [[Kenilworth Castle]], and later [[Pontefract Castle]], before he was released in 1324. Rather than killing his wife's husband at Newton-le-Willows, it was Bradshaigh who was slain there on 16 August 1333 in a fight with members of the Radcliffe family. There is no evidence that Lady Mabel remarried, either before or after her husband's death, or that she did penance at the cross. After her husband's death she funded the creation of two [[chantry chapel]]s at Blackrod and Wigan. A figure kneeling before a wayside cross featured on her tomb and within 50 years of her death Mab's Cross had taken on her name, suggesting there was a connection.<ref name="reality" />
==See also== {{portal|Greater Manchester}} *[[Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester]] *[[Listed buildings in Wigan]] *[[Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester]]
==References== {{reflist}}
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Wigan]] [[Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester]] [[Category:History of Wigan]] [[Category:Scheduled monuments in Greater Manchester]]