Landmark birthday looms on the horizon for a town’s ancient cross
Some call it the Butter Cross. Some call it the Puleston Cross. But either way, it has a big double birthday coming up soon.
Standing in the shadow of Newport’s parish church, the ancient sandstone cross commemorates Sir Roger Puleston, and next year will mark the 750th anniversary of his death.
And a descendant is wondering whether it is time to start thinking about how to mark the anniversary of the erection of the cross, which went up a few years later and has been a local landmark for all those centuries.
Philip Beddows has emailed us to say: “The man it commemorates is Sir Roger de Puleston senior who died in 1272. It was his son, a younger Sir Roger de Puleston (junior), who put up the cross in memory of his father.
“I am descended from Sir Roger de Puleston senior’s sister Amice.
“I wondered whether it may be an idea to mark the anniversary in some way. Sir Roger, a local individual, played an important role when sheriff of the county in releasing the burgesses of Newport from an obligation to the king in relation to the town’s vivary, which is I believe the origin of the town’s coat of arms.”
