ONE of the regular queries that come my way is the reason for the many stone crosses on the North York Moors. It is not possible to provide one simple answer because they have different meanings or purposes.

In fact, some are not crosses but large boulders which, for some reason, have become known as crosses. Fat Betty, otherwise The White Cross, is one example. Another problem is that these moors contain the country’s largest collection of stone crosses and standing stones, some 1,300 or so – it would take a long time to locate and visit each one to determine their purposes or check their designs.

Perhaps the best known is Ralph’s Cross, which should really be called Young Ralph because Old Ralph, quite different in appearance, stands a short distance away. Both are on the moors between Castleton and Rosedale but Young Ralph is probably the best known of all.

It stands in a very prominent position beside the road climbing from Castleton towards Hutton-le-Hole via Blakey’s famous Lion Inn where cockfights once took place. This cross – which looks like a cross – is perhaps the most regularly featured in print and photographs because it is the logo of the North York Moors National Park Authority. It also featured in the press several years ago when someone tried to climb the 9ft-high stone cross but it crashed to earth and cracked into two parts.

It seems the culprit was seeking coins placed in a hollow at the top. This was an ancient custom whereby benefactors would place coins on top as charitable donations for genuinely poor travellers – but not for thieves.

Long ago, when our four children were small, we took them there and I lifted up my son to place some loose change in the hollow. He was pleased to report that several coins were already there but we left them all in situ as tradition demanded. The precise origin and purpose of Young Ralph is uncertain. It may have been a prominent waymarker visible to travellers from a huge area, or it might have been placed there by monks from a local monastery as a reminder of God’s presence or even as a focus for open air masses.

It is thought that mass was often celebrated there by travelling priests, and when Methodism came to these moors, the faithful would congregate here for services and hymn-singing as they then had no indoor premises of GREAT news. The Friarage consultant-led maternity and paediatric unit is to close.

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their own. As they often met at night in darkness, these pilgrims became known as the Lantern Saints.

However, there is another story to account for Young Ralph. It relates the fate of a traveller in the 17th century who collapsed and died at this remote location. His body was found by a farmer called Ralph who knew of the custom in other places where money or even food was left on roadside crosses for the benefit of travellers. As a result, he decided to erect such a cross. Yet another tale tells of Cistercian nuns known as The White Ladies who were walking from York to Baysdale Abbey near Westerdale. They became separated in thick fog on the moors and were soon lost, their white habits helping to conceal them. Fearing for their lives, they began to call out to one another in the fog and were eventually reunited. In gratitude, it is said they arranged for a boulder to mark their deliverance; it was painted white in honour of their white habits and was named Betty after the leader of that party. It became known as the White Cross, although others now refer to it as Fat Betty.

In some cases, the name of a cross will appear on a map but it may consist of little more than a standing stone without any extensions. It might even be a mere hollowed-out base which once held a cross – there is such a base near our village where a gibbet once stood. Some stones are not cross-shaped (like Fat Betty) but are known as crosses and some standing stones are nothing more than former gate posts left from a past era with no gate currently in sight.

Many are boundary markers, some indicating the extent of a local estate or parish extremities. Several are memorial stones ranging from Captain Cook to Frank Elgee, a naturalist and author of The Moorlands of North East Yorkshire.

Others have names that provide a mystery such as the Yoak Stone or the Rokan Stone, and a couple of Hart Leap Stones near Glaisdale mark the leap of a terrified deer as it fled from hunters.

One very important memorial is Lilla Cross nears Fylingdales early warning station. This is reputedly the oldest Christian relic in England, being erected to mark the selfless sacrifice of Lilla in 626 when, as a guard, he stepped in front of King Edwin to protect him from an assailant who was armed with a poisoned sword. Lilla, a devout Christian, was stabbed and died at the scene. Edwin, who was King of Northumbria, was so impressed by the selfless devotion of his servant that he ordered a memorial cross to be erected at the location. He also arranged for the burial of Lilla’s remains along with some gold and silver artefacts at a place known today as Lilla Howe. Those valuables have long since disappeared.

There is no doubt that Lilla’s example impressed the king, who was not a Christian. Later, he allowed his baby daughter and 11 members of his household to be baptised into the Christian faith.

That occurred at Easter 626, and a year later, Edwin converted to Christianity, a small wooden church being used for the ceremony. Edwin decided to replace it with a more splendid stone building, the first of several on a site at York. The current one is York Minster.