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Os grid reference SD.944303. Reaps Cross stands high up on the windswept Heptonstall Moors at Kebcote, south of the Long Causeway, above Hebdon Bridge. It is best to go north from Heptonstall through Slack and then due west through Colden and High Gate following a country track as far as it goes and coming out onto Heptonstall Moor just north of a building called "Egypt". Where the footpaths go in different directions to the south-west and north carry straight on up the hillside untill you see the cross-shaft ahead. Lower Gorple reservoir will be seen to the north.
This tall thin cross was erected in the 1400s as a way-marker or marker stone for pilgrims and others traversing the high Pennine moors. It is 15 feet high and stands in a rectangular, socketed base stone. The long thin rectangular shaft has chamfered edges to it which tapers away towards the top where there is a notch at either side that once formed a cross-head.
But the cross has suffered from damage and when it was broken in two it only stood some 5 feet high, but in 2002 it was restored and re-erected by a team of local people including Mr Graham Walker and Mr Patrick Savage. And what an excellent job they have done with a new section put in place and a steel rod inserted to strengthen the monument. They adhered to the requirements of English Heritage due to the fact that the cross is an ancient monument and grade 2 listed. A plaque on the cross records that it was re-erected in 2002.
The large base-stone is a rough dressed rectangular lump of stone. Apparently, the cross-head with some carving on it was embedded in the ground at the base, but this has now been taken away for safety. The head had what were thought to be carved cross arms. I don't know where this now resides. Ancient Monument no 23382.
This tall thin cross was erected in the 1400s as a way-marker or marker stone for pilgrims and others traversing the high Pennine moors. It is 15 feet high and stands in a rectangular, socketed base stone. The long thin rectangular shaft has chamfered edges to it which tapers away towards the top where there is a notch at either side that once formed a cross-head.
But the cross has suffered from damage and when it was broken in two it only stood some 5 feet high, but in 2002 it was restored and re-erected by a team of local people including Mr Graham Walker and Mr Patrick Savage. And what an excellent job they have done with a new section put in place and a steel rod inserted to strengthen the monument. They adhered to the requirements of English Heritage due to the fact that the cross is an ancient monument and grade 2 listed. A plaque on the cross records that it was re-erected in 2002.
The large base-stone is a rough dressed rectangular lump of stone. Apparently, the cross-head with some carving on it was embedded in the ground at the base, but this has now been taken away for safety. The head had what were thought to be carved cross arms. I don't know where this now resides. Ancient Monument no 23382.
