Geddington Eleanor Cross

In 1290 Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I and mother of his 14 children, died at Harby in Nottinghamshire. The grief-stricken king ordered the building of 12 elegant crosses to mark each of the resting places of his wife’s funeral procession as it travelled from Lincoln to her burial place at Westminster Abbey, London. The stately triangular Geddington cross, with its canopied statues surmounted by a slender hexagonal pinnacle, is the best-preserved of only three intact survivors. Other crosses stand at Hardingstone also in Northamptonshire, and at Waltham Cross. With its subtle geometry and rich decoration, the Eleanor Cross is an outstanding example of late 13th-century stone carving. The first queen of Edward I would perhaps have been completely forgotten, had it not been for her husband’s dramatic memorials.