Can we bring Kirkby Cross back to its former glory?

Hopefully not too many of the metal plaques have been stolen and melted down as happens elsewhere.

Whenever the 3C bus conveys me past the stump known officially as ‘Kirkby Cross’ I give a wry smile. Can’t something be done to restore this dilapidated spike to its former glory? Was it ever a cross? Certainly, judging by the dates of photos I’ve seen, nobody alive today has seen it as a cross, though some ‘old’uns’ might have noticed that at least one layer of the base has sunk into the ground.

We do seem to have a perverse reverence for ruins in this country – ruined castles and monasteries are rarely restored to their former glory.

In Lithuania where I’ve had many holidays, castles and stately homes trashed by the Soviets are being returned to their former glory. Unlike castles in Britain, where stonework and brickwork has to be matched to what was there before, often a contrasting material is used to show what is original and what is reproduction.

English Heritage would have kittens.

Do all the thousands who visit Trakai, Kaunas and other castles object? No way – they enjoy their history, roaming in and around these fascinating relics from the past, seeing how their ancestors lived.

Surely Kirkby Cross is as much worthy of restoration as any war 
memorial?

Tony Olsson

Millers Way, 
Kirkby-in-Ashfield

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