In 1907, J. W. Harper wrote Mow Cop and its Slopes, a local history book about Mow Cop and its surrounding villages. During the coming weeks, North Staffordshire Heritage is posting edited extracts from the book, which is out of print and difficult to obtain from second-hand bookshops.
In the second post in this series, we post Harper’s description of Stone Chair Cross in Scholar Green, a village on the Cheshire Dip of the North Staffordshire Coalfield.
It is not generally known that Scholar Green was once a market centre. A market was held there for many years, and a market cross was erected near the village.
When visiting Stoke, I was told that “the seated lady with her egg basket” had been taken off the obelisk and taken to the grounds of a local landowner.
Known as Stone Chair Cross, the obelisk was erected where Stone Chair Lane joins Station Road in Kent Green. There is a farmhouse at the junction called Stone Chair Farm.
The cross is in five parts. It is a square structure, tapering slightly at the top.
There is a tradition in Rode Heath that women were bought and sold there.
Senior citizens who grew up in Scholar Green remember the cross being taken down in the 1960s after a local councillor said it was unsafe.
For technical reasons, we have been unable to reproduce the sketch of the market cross in Harper’s book. If you have a photograph of the cross or can tell us more about it, please email northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com
The photograph shows a view of Mow Cop taken from Scholar Green.
Photograph: © Copyright Galatas and licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
North Staffordshire Heritage 