Mabs Cross can still be seen, in front of Mabs Cross Junior school, at the top of the hill where Standishgate joins Wigan Lane |
How the effigies were originally displayed |
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The Crawford Chapel |
This chapel, also known as the Lady Chapel, stands on the south side of the Chancel. In the Middle Ages it was the common practice for rich people to found chantries in parish churches where they were buried and where they were remembered after death. This one was founded in 1338 by Lady Mabel Bradshaigh of Haigh Hall, the heroine of the famous Wigan Mabs Cross Legend. She can be seen with her husband to the left of the altar.
The Story of Lady Mabel Sir William Bradshaigh was absent for ten years fighting the Crusades. His wife, Lady Mabel presuming him dead, married a Welsh Knight. Sir William returned and, in disguise, mingled with the poor of Haigh where he was seen by his wife who wept at his resemblance to her former husband. At this Sir William went and made himself known to his tenants. The Welsh Knight fled. Lady Mabel was told by her confessor to do penance by walking once a week, barefoot, from Haigh to a cross near Wigan. Sir William was outlawed for a year and a day, but he and Lady Mabel lived happily together afterwards. |
WIGAN PARISH CHURCH |
There is a fine east window designed by Lady Jane Evelyn Lindsay |
On either side of the Altar are two marble monuments beautifully executed by the Florentine artists Felicie and Hyppolyte de Fauveau. She was a renowned 19th century Romantic sculptress, with a liking for decoration and symbolic detail |