Mount Cross

Mount Cross, Stiperden, on the Long Causeway where the old tracks converge on the moor between Heptonstall and Burnley, near the branch road to Todmorden and Rochdale. Possibly Anglo Saxon and one of the earliest signs of Christinanity in the valleys. This superb medieval cross possibly marks the boundary between the ancient parish of Dewsbury and the monastic lands of Whalley Abbey. Set in a field below the Long Causeway, an ancient ridgeway of possibly prehistoric origin, it is strategically placed at a junction of packhorse routes to Burnley, Halifax, Rochdale and Cross Stone. It stands five feet high and has a slender shaft with a cross head of the equal-armed type with central boss. It was repaired in 1898 with copper dowels after being thrown down and broken. To the west are several other cross sites thought to be guide stones for travellers raised by the monks who may have preached here. Along the Long Causeway would have come packhorses laden with wool from the Lancashire granges of Whalley Abbey en route to Halifax and beyond. Text from: Calderdale Architecture and History