People have often wondered what the history was of the old shaft of stone on our village green, which has the appearance of being the remains of an old cross, says an article under “Bodenham” in the “Weston “Rural Deanery Magazine” for July. That, however, is not the case. Residents in the parish can remember when the green had nothing but old stones lying about, including the existing socket-stone of the shaft. This was almost buried. Men of the parish began to talk of a remarkably long stone, which had just been discovered in Dudale’s Hope Quarry, and the suggestion was made that the stone should be brought down and erected on the green. Mr. Baggott offered the hauling, and Mr. Yeomans, a stonemason, who lived at the inn, then standing behind the Well Cottage, undertook to do the cutting. Help was given by others, amongst them Messrs. Mytton, Reynolds, Beadles, and the Brothers Bethell. Mr. Thomas Landon, surveyor at that time, granted permission for the erection of the stone on the green, and was greatly pleased with the plan. All this happened in the early forties of the last century, soon after Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne. The well itself was then uncovered and was surrounded by a circle of stones. In front of it was a small open pool, from which the animals used to drink. Mrs. Reynolds, of the Well Cottage, still possesses a picture of the old village well, painted by Miss Arkwright, a daughter of the former vicar. There seems to be little doubt that the socket-stone of the existing shaft formed the base of one of the pillars of a small open village market hall, like the one at Pembridge, only on a smaller scale. Mrs. Reynolds can remember her parents speaking of the time when the women used to bring their market baskets down to the green and place them on the stones. A licence was granted in the year 1379 for holding a market and fair at Bodenham. The market appears to have been held weekly on Tuesdays, and the fair on the Feast of the Assumption and the days preceding and following.
Source info: Not stated; looks like Hereford Times.
Watkins used this cutting about a socket-stone at Bodenham, Herefordshire, in The Old Straight Track, page 99. There “Dudale’s” is called “Dewsall”, and Watkins says he himself spoke to Mrs. Reynolds.