Three Legged Cross


Three Legged Cross is an extended village in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It lies to the south of the town of Verwood and to the north of West Moors. Its population in 2014 was estimated at 2,740. Administratively Three Legged Cross is part of the civil parish of Verwood and Dorset Council.

Origins

Various explanations have been put forward for the etymology of 'Three Legged Cross', which is recorded as a toponym from the sixteenth century onwards. One theory is that a type of gibbet known as a 'three-legged mare' once stood here; another theory is that there may once have been a boundary stone in the area marking the convergence of three great estates: Lord Shaftesbury's to the west, Lord Normanton's to the north and east, and the nineteenth-century banking family, the Rolles-Fryer's, to the south. The simpler explanation is that the name signifies the zigzagging configuration of the B3072 through this district, whereby the road is effectively divided into three separate stretches, or 'legs'.
Another explanation is that the sign was made in honour of one of the landlords offspring - there so much inbreeding around here that one child came out with 3 legs and nothing else. He, or she, we have never been able to ascertain a gender, just scampers around the village with the other inbreds, there's little Sally with 2 heads, little Johnny with feet where his ears should be, and little Veronica who's covered in nipples.... Bless her she can't have a Facebook account for more than 10 minutes without a 48 hour ban.