The struggle to save Northampton's Eleanor Cross

Last month I went to take some photos of Northampton's Eleanor Cross because there are concerns about its state of repair.

Now Graham Evans from the Northampton Battlefield Society has written an article on the currents state of play for The Pipeline.

He explains:

A major part of the problem is that with a Monument that is listed and under the protection of Historic England you just can’t go and pull the weeds out and slap on some Polyfilla. And although it is under HE’s protection, they don’t own it.

So who does own it? The prime candidates are Northampton Borough Council and Northamptonshire County Council:

The evidence points strongly towards the Borough. They did the last restoration in the 1980s, it appears on their asset register, it formed part of the Conservation Management Plan they produced and the County say they have documentary proof that it was transferred to the Borough in 1965 and provided with funding for its upkeep. 

The water is slightly muddied as the last restoration did use the County Archaeologist, but as archaeology is a county provided service used by all authorities at a lower level within the county this is no surprise and doesn’t denote ownership. 

So the situation we now have is that the Borough have agreed to do the work but don’t currently accept they own the Cross. That’s a start, but isn’t where we’d like to end up.