Double Butcher Row
in which are also many interesting specimens of domestic architecture.
At the top of Pride Hill, on the right, is
The Butter Cross
intended for the accommodation of persons bringing Butter, Eggs, and Poultry to the markets. The old cross, a heavy, inconvenient brick building, with a large reservoir on its top for supplying the upper parts of the town with water, stood nearly in the centre of the thoroughfare, whence it was removed in 1818, and another erected at the expense of the Corporation, on the present site; which also proving insufficient and inconvenient, was taken down, and the present structure, on an enlarged scale, built in 1844, by the Corporation, aided by the subscriptions of the town and neighbourhood.
Timber Houses on Pride Hill In early times a Cross stood on this spot, of which frequent mention is made in old documents, by the name of the High Cross, and the adjoining street was called the High Pavement. Here proclamations were accustomed to be made, and criminals executed. This cross is remarkable as the place on which David, the last of the British Princes of Wales, underwent a cruel and ignominious death, by order of Edward I. and where many noblemen, taken prisoners at the battle of Shrewsbury, were executed.
On part of the site of the present Cross stood, previously, an ancient timber structure, probably part of the collegiate buildings of the adjacent church of St. Mary.
Nearly opposite the Butter Cross, on the left-hand side of the street, is an old mansion, now new-fronted, modernised, partially rebuilt, and divided, once, it is believed, the residence of the opulent and ancient, but now extinct, family of the Prides, who gave their name to the street “Pride Hill.” Some idea of its former splendour may have been collected from the ornamented plaster ceilings, which remained in several of the rooms, but which, by recent alterations, are probably now removed.
Proceeding onwards, we shortly reach, on the left,