NHER 49552 (Monument record) - Possible site of a medieval cross, Langley with Hardley

June 2007
The site of a possible medieval cross or church is suggested by cartographic sources (S1-S2). This possible cross site was previously recorded as part of NHER 17583 and is located at approximately TG 3600 0300. Relevant section of description from NHER 11729 is included in squared brackets below. Faden’s 1797 county map (S1) shows a cross symbol indicating a church at this location. However, there is no other record of its existence and this is probably a cartographic error with an actual cross being confused with the symbol for a church during transcription. This map also records the houses immediately to the north-west as Langley Cross rather than Langley Green, supporting the presence of an actual cross here. It has previously been considered (see below) that this was probably the medieval cross from the modern war memorial site (NHER 11729) which had been moved to the green, before being moved again to Langley Park where it still survives (NHER 10326). This seems to be an unnecessarily complicated explanation. This site is located at the west corner of the site of Langley Abbey (NHER 10344) and it is possible that there was a cross at this location to mark the limit of the abbey land, separating it from the common land to its north. As pointed below, a map of Langley dating to 1600 (S2), almost two centuries earlier than Faden’s map, also marks a cross at this location. It is likely that there were medieval crosses at both this location and the site of the present war memorial (NHER 11729) one of which is known to have been moved to Langley Park.
J. Albone (NLA), 21 June 2007

Description copied from NHER 11729
[(S1) is most odd here, it seems to show the cross rather just north of the Abbey, plus the symbol for a church though there was never one here. His symbol for a 'gentleman's residence' is to the south. Not only so, but he marks Langley Green as Langley Cross. (S2) seems to show the cross on Faden's site also. So is the war memorial site mythical or was the cross moved twice?
E. Rose (NLA), 1 March 2001.]