The Market Cross

The Market Cross, of which mention occurs in 1467, formerly stood on the south-west corner of the Market Hill; and "here all proclamations were ordinarily made, as they still are on the spot where it stood."

Here, in July, 1553, the Duke of Northumberland proclaimed Lady Jane Grey, his daughter, as Queen; and here, a few days afterwards, in the vain hope to save his head, the same duke proclaimed Queen Mary.

Nearby, in 1557, the bodies of Bucer and Fagius, two German divines who had been sent to Cambridge by Edward VI. to lecture on Divinity and Hebrew, having been disinterred from their resting place in St Mary's and St Michael's Churches, were chained to the stake and burnt amid much ceremony and preaching. The Cross was removed in 1790.