Pictures of the Past : The Cross, Stoney Middleton

This rather ubiquitous postcard shows a group of trees on the skyline, which the tinting on the original has rendered as an amorphous blob, with a menacing outline - like some huge beast crouched on the hillside ready to spring... I have attempted some digital enhancement to make them look a little less fearsome!

There is a copy of the postcard on Helen Wilson's ‘Photo-Ark’ site which also shows a closeup of the horse and trap (on the left) on its way down the High Street. Helen states the postcard was posted in 1921, and in her closeup the village cross can be seen to have a date of 1846.

A more recent photograph Moon Inn and Village Cross shows some 'horseless carriages' where once was the horse and trap. In fact, neither this photo nor the above show the Village Cross too well, but perhaps it can be seen better on the above by focussing on the figure standing against it, on its pedestal.

(Commentary provided by Rosemary Lockie)