Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Cross Hill ,Thingwall

Not sure if this has been done before but just wondering why Cross Hill, Thingwall, is so called.. Could there be a burial ground under the hump ?
The name would indicate something to do with Christianity.

Some good stuff here
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/apr/04/secret-britain-vikings-wirral-liverpool

Don't know about a burial ground, Granny, but somewhere on this site is a picture of the vast reservoir under the hill before it was filled with water.

According to the Tithe map of about 1849, the plot name was Cross Hill and this was divided by Barnston Road . I don't know if this has any religious significance , but the plot on the opposite side of the road to the reservoir was supposedly the site of the Viking 'Thing' or meeting place that gave Thingwall its name.

It would be great to think that there was at some point a cross there marking the meeting place, which gave the name to the location; but that's just conjecture - or wishful thinking!

Thanks for all your input everyone. I can't find the info you mention Chris.
The idea that the names Red Hill (or Blood Hill as Prof. Harding thinks it was called) and Rest Hill Road, both in Storeton, have their link to the Vikings is interesting.
That gave the idea to the possibility that they may have had some sort of structure as a centre point of the 'Assembly Field' mainly as they turned towards Christianity after they arrived here in Britain.
Maybe the idea of Cross Hill being a burial mound, is a bit far fetched but the name would have to lend itself to something and there aren't any cross roads there.

Ha ha Chris... found it. Bottom of the page
https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums...wall_Poll_Hill_Reservoir.html#Post472576

Thanks, Granny; well done. I looked but couldn't find it.

As an update to the enquiry of where the name Cross Hill,came from. Here are the words of the 'man' himself.(Harding)

quote ' Cross Hill could certainly have derived from Old Norse kross.'

Just a quick note before we go on a religious trek - the Vikings were NOT so-called Christians - any reference to a Norse cross should be treated as just that - it meant something (possibly deeply) symbolic to them - no doubt - but nowt to do with Jesus.

Another theory - the area is well-known as a natural spring water centre with around 20-odd springs in the immediate area - maybe you had to Cross numerous little streams - left field I know ;-)

Maybe the religious trek does not fall into everyone's wishes, but the evidence that they were Christians is pretty widespread.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=v...a_1D4qwPK_5gegL&ved=0CCIQsAQ#imgrc=_

Crosses were placed on hills.

With the intriguing thoughts of Erainn on the stones at Arrowe Park, which is only a mile down the road from Thingwall, maybe there could be a connection. Maybe they had camps as they moved about the area a lot, and considering the Assembly Field was on Cross Hill, we know they were fairly local.

Also.... according to the following article :

http://viking.no/e/life/echristianity.htm

The Norwegians had met the "Cross-men" when they landed in England and Ireland. A lot of Scandinavians settled in Britain and you can still find gravestones in England with both the Thor's hammer and a cross .

Granny and I won't ever see eye to eye over religion but we respect each others view. I also concur about the Vikings and Christianity. The Viking Age was a period of considerable religious change in Scandinavia. Part of the popular image of the Vikings is that they were all pagans, with a hatred of the Christian Church, but this view is very misleading. It is true that almost the entire population of Scandinavia was pagan at the beginning of the Viking Age, but the Vikings had many gods, and it was no problem for them to accept the Christian god alongside their own. Most scholars today believe that Viking attacks on Christian churches had nothing to do with religion, but more to do with the fact that monasteries were typically both wealthy and poorly defended, making them an easy target for plunder. It is also widely accepted that Christianity was introduced into their homelands between the 11th and 12th centuries.

The cross symbol appears many times in history long before Christianity was dreamt up.

On the Tithe maps there are three distinct plots of land in the vicinity called Cross Hill. the majority of the land so named is on the reservoir side of the road, there is also a plot called Cross Hay in the middle of them.

This question is not due to any beliefs on my part, Casper, it is purely as trying to find the possibility that Cross Hill was a name given to the meeting place due to a certain significance adopted at the time and if the name could be dated back to the Viking period. You say that Christianity was introduced to their homelands in 11th/12th centuries, after 995 ad, it was only a matter of 5 years to the 11th century. Crosses from that time in their homelands also had carvings of Jesus on them, and at the moment I am unable to find those to show you.
So it could be connected to religion or as DD says it could be pre- Christian roots. Never the less, could there have been a cross on the hill to give the name Cross Hill? (or then Kross) I have been trying to find the earliest date for the name of Cross Hill, but so far have been unable to come up with anything previous to 1800's. as atw1960 pointed out.

Probably one of the better known crosses depicting both pagan and christian beliefs combined is the Gosforth cross in Cumbria. This may be the one Granny is thinking of.

Gosforth was Anglo Saxon.

The Jelling Stones are the ones I think. Some about it on Wikipedia. King Harald died about 985 AD. Nice picture of stone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelling_stones