UNTIL the Reformation in the 16th century village and wayside crosses were commonplace in the Keighley and South Craven area, writes Robin Longbottom.

The village cross acted as a focal point and an informal place of worship for those unable to get to their parish church, which in the North of England could be many miles away.

As far back as the 6th and 7th centuries crosses were erected at points where the local community could gather to receive a religious service, baptism or a blessing for their marriage.

Such traditions continued into the 18th and 19th century, particularly with the rise of Methodism which in its early years relied on outdoor meetings.

Although many crosses still survive in the Yorkshire Dales, they are few and far between in our area.

Perhaps the best preserved local one is the Little Mary Cross that is now relegated to a dark corner of Glusburn Park.

Until the early 1950s this medieval cross stood in a field at the side of the road leading from Junction to Cross Hills and as it was at the foot of the hill up to the village it may well have been the source of the name.

It was relocated to the park when a garage, once Dawson and Stows and now an antiques centre, was extended, and so although saved for posterity it is now, unfortunately, completely out of context and remains largely unknown.

Better placed is the remaining top half of the cross in Laycock.

Although the lower part has been lost the surviving portion is built into the top of a wall in the Main Street.

It stands rather squatly in the wall on the left just before you reach the Village Hall.

Another cross head is built into a wall near the appropriately named Cross Farm in Oxenhope, whilst at Exley Head there is a large, roughly-hewn base, or socle, for a cross long since lost.

Wayside crosses once acted both as a guide posts for travellers and for an opportunity for them to rest a while and pray for a safe journey.

The cross at Exley Head was one of a series of crosses on the road between Keighley and Colne, which included the Watersheddles Cross above Two Laws in Oakworth, Combe Cross above the Watersheddles Reservoir, an unnamed cross that once stood below the old Herders Inn and Emmott Cross at Laneshawbridge, now relocated to Colne Parish Church yard.

The trip over the Herders' road can be a bleak and lonely one today, and no doubt travellers in days gone by were in much need of a place to stop to pray for a safe end to their journey.

Many medieval crosses are now completely lost but traces that they once existed can still be found on maps and in place names.

Cononley still has properties known as St John's Cross; Steeton is recorded as having had a cross near the bridge at the foot of the Brow; and a cross at Stanbury was remembered by the Cross Inn, now known as the Wuthering Heights.

In the 1960s a very battered cross head was found in a garden at Stanbury, although its whereabouts are now unknown a surviving photograph shows what appears to have been a Celtic style cross with a central boss that may have dated back to the early Middle Ages.

Perhaps other remains of our medieval crosses still lie unrecognised or undiscovered in other gardens and may yet come to light.