St Lawrence's church
I recently wrote the local tourist authority to identify and give information on this unidentified picture I had.
The building in front of the church is the Cloisters. This building does not belong to the church, but was constructed by the Borough Council for the benefit of the butter-sellers at the weekly market. It was designed to give them shelter from the sun, but was fairly unsuccessful, as they quickly moved into the main Market Hall, where the air was cooler. The Cloisters were built on church land and the Borough Council, of old, paid what is known as a "peppercorn rent". It is still the property of the Town Council.
The pillar at the front of the photograph is of Low Cross. This monument is believed to have been constructed in the early 18th century. It is, also, believed to be a copy of the monument at the top of Boroughgate (the main thoroughfare) called High Cross. Low Cross was placed at the northern end of the Market Square, and is commonly regarded as the boundary marker of the weekly market, which ran between High and Low Cross. The two monuments were also used as the markers for the punishment of "whipping". This was a sentence of the 18th and 19th centuries which required the guilty person to be stripped bare, on the upper part of the body, and whipped continuously from High Cross down to Low Cross. The poor prisoner would then be placed into "Stocks" outside the Cloisters to suffer further indignities at the hands of the people. Stan Rooke, Town Mayor, June 2019 Appleby-in-Westmorland 82060621
2019 RBC Solutions | Toronto, Canada | photographed: 1982 June