Note 35 — Chapter IV

The cross had possibly some connection with the priory of St. Mary Overy hard by, or with the rich and powerful abbey, originally the priory of St. Saviour’s, Bermondsey. A chronicle, supposed to have been written by one of the monks, is among the Harleian MSS. (No. 231). We are here told that in the year 1117 ‘the cross of the Holy Saviour was found near the Thames.’ Apparently this was the cross of Bermondsey, placed in the church, to which pilgrimages were occasionally made. It was taken down in 1538, during the mayoralty of Sir Richard Gresham, and in all likelihood destroyed; but Wilkinson, in his ‘Londina Illustrata,’ gives a view, showing in front of the building, attached to the chief or north gate of the abbey, a small cross with zigzag ornament, which some have sought to identify with this holy rood. It existed with the remains of the building till comparatively recent times. On the way to the abbey were famous roadside crosses: one north, the site of which is at the junction of Tooley Street with Bermondsey Street; the other south, in Kent Street.