Informations directionnelles

Passer devant la mairie et prendre le chemin à gauche, et de nouveau à gauche. Continuer sur environ 250 mètre puis traverser l’espace vert pour rejoindre la rue des Bons Garçons. Le prendre à droite. Au croisement avec la route de Nucourt, prendre à gauche. Continuer jusqu’à la Grande rue. Prendre à droite jusqu’au n° 20.

FOUR CROSSES
Remaining to be seen

 

 

Cross are religious or votive…

The area was Catholic, as is evident from the crosses scattered about the village. The cross in the old cemetery is to the south of the church and dates from 1643. Made of iron it sits on a cylindrical shaft on a cubic base. The inscription in Latin on the stone base reads “O crux Ave spes unica” (“O hail the Cross, our only hope”) and the figure of Christ is in cast iron. When the cemetery, originally located around the church, was moved in 1878 another cross was erected.
The wrought iron Néel Cross at the edge of the fields on the Chemin de Cléry is on a stone shaft. This is a more recent cross put up in the noughties. The base is a neogothic polygon and carries the inscription: “Last will and testament of Georges Néel. Lord have pity on me. Hail to the Cross. Erected in 1879”. The Néel Cross was probably erected on the wishes of a resident of Bellay and may replace an older cross that stood at the crossroads of Chemin de Cléry and Chemin de la Justice, which appears in the 1830 Napoleonic land registry.
A notable feature of the Bons Garçons Cross, located at the intersection of the Grande Rue and Route 188, are the protective guard stones around it.

 

 

…Or stand at crossroads

There are crosses at roadsides and at crossroads, dotted around the countryside and in village streets and squares. With only the rectangular stone base left, the “broken” cross would surely have been a crossroads cross. It was commonplace to erect crosses at crossroads as both road markings and religious symbols to protect the intersection. A modern statue of the Virgin and Child now stands in place of the cross.