sentences:  The purpose of the cross seems most likely to have been to mark the old mouth of the Avon, the access to the port of Bristol, for the benefit of sailors approaching from the south and turning upriver north of the now vanished Dumball Island.Local tradition has it that sailors used it to show their gratitude to God for their safe return by leaving donations for the Church, and there is a hole in one of the steps which is said to have received their coins.The origin of the name is uncertain.