Monday, September 24, 2012

The Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone

If you have been with this blog since 2009 you may remember my visit to Geddington in Northamptonshire and its Eleanor Cross.

These crosses were erected at the 12 places that the body of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, rested in 1290 on its progress from Harby in Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey.

One of those places was at Delapre Abbey in Northampton and its cross is one of three that still exist. To find it you have to cross the golf course from the Abbey or go back to the London Road and climb the hill. It is situated some way from the Abbey in a prominent site at the top. This is cross is variously described as being sited at Delapre Abbey, Northampton and Hardingstone.

When I saw it I thought it might be a little too good to be true, as it was restored in the early 17th century. And Bob Speel's page on the Queen Eleanor Crosses does record that some thought it had been "much disfigured by the repairs executed by officious and ignorant individuals".

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