CROSS HILL

At Cross Hill, buried almost out of sight, is a large square stone, which in appearance is not altogether unlike the bowl of a font. According to the Rev. Mr. Phillips, a former rector, it is the Feltwell Settlement Stone; according to others it was used for baptising people at Cross Hill; it is also said to have been filled with vinegar for traders, and others, to dip and disinfect their money during any pestilence or epidemic, such as small-pox, which was so fatal before the discovery of vaccination by Dr. Jenner in 1798. The name, however, of Cross Hill explains itself. Formerly it was the custom to erect a cross in market places and in open spaces in towns and villages; and Cross Hill is the spot on which the Feltwell Village Cross was erected and stood in ancient days. Feltwell proper is built in the form of the figure eight. Seven is known as the number of perfection while eight is the number of regeneration which accounts for so many church fonts being octagonal; and at the main entrance to Feltwell, at the bottom of the eight, stood the Village Cross. It was probably destroyed when such symbols were considered superstitious and all that can now be seen is the font-like base on which the cross once stood. Near Bury St. Edmunds, by the roadside, about a quarter-of-a-mile out of the town, can be seen the base of an ancient cross similar to that at Cross Hill.

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