Mystery
The Hillside Cross
A giant chalk cross that nobody admits to carving.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Giant chalk cross cut into a Chiltern hillside
- Legend from
- Unknown; first recorded 1738-1742
- Tone
- Curious
Look up at the hillside: that giant white cross has watched over Princes Risborough for centuries, and nobody can say who carved it.
Cut into the steep chalk face of Whiteleaf Hill above Monks Risborough is a huge cross standing on a triangular base, visible for miles across the Vale of Aylesbury. Nobody knows who made it or why. It is first recorded in the 1730s or 1740s, and suggestions range from a memorial to a Saxon victory over the Danes to a 17th-century creation. The antiquary Francis Wise noted it in 1742. It was weeded and recut in 1826 under the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and the Bucks HER thinks it may be 17th century, but its true age is still uncertain.