Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I, died at Harby near Lincoln on 28 November 1290. Her body was embalmed at Lincoln and left there on 4 December to be taken to for burial in Abbey on 17 December. The funeral procession rested at Stamford on the night of 5/6 December.

Subsequently, at each of the overnight resting places Edward erected large memorial crosses, 12 in all, and they were to be found at Lincoln, , Stamford, , (), , Woburn, , , Waltham, and Charing.

Such was the fame of the crosses that it was believed until recently that the name Charing comes from chère reine, ‘dear queen’, but this is a false etymology: the name means simply ‘a turning in the river or road’ and dates from the 10th century.

Only the crosses at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham survive today.

The at Geddington.

The series of Eleanor crosses is unique in medieval and it has often been asked ‘why were they built?’ Edward’s and Eleanor’s devotion to each other is legendary and is typified by the (probably spurious) story of Eleanor sucking poison out of her husband’s wound after an assassination attempt.

The Eleanor Cross at The Eleanor Cross Hardingstone, Northampton. at Waltham.

What is more definitely known is that from her marriage in 1254, Eleanor was rarely away from her husband’s side, even going on crusade with him in 1270-1272.

This lifestyle is rare enough in a medieval royal household to be worthy of note. The picture of a grieving husband erecting a series of memorial crosses to a deeply loved wife may not be too far from the truth.

The first surviving descriptions of the standing cross at Stamford date from the 17th century and no contemporary 13th century references remain. This is unfortunate as details of some of the other crosses can be found in the accounts of Queen Eleanor’s executors and their builders and costs are known.

Richard Butcher, a Stamford Town Clerk, in his 1646 history of Stamford was one of the first to describe the cross, but the first reference to it occurs a few years earlier in 1621 when the Borough Corporation ‘agreed that the fate of the King’s Cross shall be forthwith amended by a sufficient workman’. Travelling through the town in 1645, a Royalist soldier, Captain Richard Symonds, also described the cross in his diary and it cannot have been long after that the cross was destroyed. It had certainly disappeared before the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.

85 years later, the famous antiquary , vicar of All Saints, excavated the site and took away pieces of carved stone for his collection. He had long suspected that a tumulus on the Casterton Road was the remains of the base of the cross, and when the turnpike surveyor began digging in the area for roadstone, got him and his men to excavate for the foundations. Stukeley describes his discoveries in his diary entry for 21 December 1745, a letter to the Stamford Mercury of 26 December 1745 and a letter to a fellow antiquary, Samuel Gale, of 6 January 1746.

It is not known exactly what the Stamford Eleanor Cross looked like, and there are no surviving illustrations. However, there is enough of a common pattern among the other crosses, plus surviving written descriptions to give some idea of its appearance. All the crosses seem to have stood on polygonal bases (hexagonal at Geddington and Waltham, octagonal at Hardingstone) with statuary in open niches above. Each cross also bore the arms of England (Eleanor’s husband Edward I), Castile (her father, Ferdinand of Castile) and Ponthieu (her mother, Joan). The architectural style was that of the Decorated period, each cross having arches with much geometrical tracery and various kinds of formalised foliage carving. The descriptions by Captain Symonds and Butcher confirm the presence of the shields, and Stukelely’s account of the base, which was hexagonal (letter to Samuel Gale) or octagonal (letter to Stamford Mercury) confirm it as polygonal. The pinnacle Stukeley took away for his collection and described by him as being of Sussex marble, was probably of Purbeck, or very possibly Alwalton, marble, and this was used on some of the other crosses. Despite there being no Purbeck marble on the Geddington cross, it is very possible the one at Stamford was very much like it.

The Survey and Antiquitie of the Towne of Stamford, Richard Butcher, 1646. Not farre from hence upon the Northe side of the Town unto York highway and about twelvescore from the Town gate, which is called Clement-gate, stands an ancient Crosse of free stone of a very curious fabrick, having many ancient scutchions of Armes insculped in the stone, about it; as the Armes of Castile and Leon, quartered, being the paternall coat of the King of Spain, and divers other Hatchments belonging to that Crown, which envious time hath so defaced, that only the ruins appeare to my eye, and therefore not to be described by my pen. This Crosse is called the Queens Crosse, and was erected in this place by King Edward the first about Anno Dom. 1293.

Diary entry of Captain Richard Symonds, 1645:

Satterday, August 23, to Stamford, com. Lincoln. Four parish churches in it. In the hill before ye come into the towne, stands a large lofty crosse built by Edward III (sic), in memery of Elianor his queen, whose corps resting there coming from the North. Upon the top of this crosse these three shields are often carved: England; three bends sinister a bordure (Ponthieu); quarterly Castile and Leon. Stukeley had long suspected a tumulus on the Casterton Road to be the base of the Eleanor Cross. Here he has inserted the cross in its correct position as a skyline feature on a sketch of his vicarage and the castle. This was 7 years before he excavated the site.

Letter to Stamford Mercury of 26 December 1745 by William Stukeley.

On Saturday, 21 decemb. 1745, Mr Wying the Surveyor of the turnpike road, acquainted me, that digging on anemone hill (as called) for stone to make the road: they came to a foundation of Bernake stone, squared and found some carved stones. I instantly suspected it to be the remains of Queen’s Cross; demolished by the Fanatics in the beginning of the great Rebellion, 100 years agoe. Anemone hill is the first grassy cliff on the left hand, going from Stamford to Brigcasterton, so named after a most rare and beautiful flower, springing up here plentifully, and early in the year. I have often taken notice of a tumulus on the tip of this hill, looking towards Stamford: which now upon view, found to be the foundation of this famous cross, built by Edward I in memory of Queen Eleanor... On 23 decemb. We bared the whole tumulus, and laid open the entire foundation of this noble monument. The lower course of steps are left quite round: octagonal, each side being 13 foot in length: so that the outward circumference was 30 foot in diameter. The original building stood on 6 or more steps, and was 40 or 50 foot in heigth. There were four images of the queen as large as the life: looking towards the four quarters of the heavens. There stood in so many niches of most elegant work. Some fragments of that work were found; and a piece of the great pyramidal stone at top: which was about 10 foot high at least. It is adorn’d with roses. On the lower stage of the building were the escocheons of England, Castile, Leon, Ponthieu, &c.

The right worshipful Mr Mayor of Stamford, being desirous of preserving the memorial of our Queen’s cross, as much as possible, has by the common Cryer forbid any person to displace or take away any of the stones now remaining: on penalty of the offenders being prosecuted with the utmost severity. I am &c. 24 dec 1745 Wm Stukeley I have a fragment of the upper pyramidal stone adorn’d with roses. ‘tis of the sussex marble.

Where was the Stamford cross situated? This has long been a question which has puzzled historians. Butcher states it to be ‘twelvescore from....Clement-gate’, which if the omitted unit of measurement is paces, places it 240 yards from the present Scotgate crossroads, that is, just beyond Clock House near the junction of Empingham and Casterton Roads. Butcher being a local historian and an eyewitness of the standing cross, has gained a pre-eminent status, but it is clear his position does not agree with that of the other eyewitness, Captain Richard Symonds, or with Stukeley. Symonds is quite clear in saying that it lies ‘in the hill before...... the towne’, not at the bottom of it. Stukeley is even more precise: ‘’tis on the left hand going from Stamford about half a mile’ Competing sites for the Eleanor Cross in Stamford. (21 December 1745, diary) ‘the first grassy cliff on the left hand, going from Stamford to Brigcasterton (Great Casterton)...... on the Symonds and Stukeley tip of this hill, looking towards Stamford. (Letter to Stamford Mercury 24 dec 1745) ‘half a mile north of Stamford, on the brow of the hill by Butcher the road side.’ (6 January 1746, letter to Samuel Gale)

If Stukeley’s identification of what he found can be substantiated as the Eleanor Cross, we get a fairly precise location as he gives us other clues. In all his accounts Stukeley referes to the cross being on Anemone Hill (almost certainly named after the Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris) and though this name does not survive today, it was still in use in the 19th century when one of the building plots in the sale of the Torkington estate (the Torkington Street, Reform Street area) was named ‘Blue Anemone Hill’. This, together with the evidence of it being on the ‘brow’ or ‘tip’ of the hill, would place the cross in the present Foxdale area.

Evidence further substantiating Stukeley’s claim that what he found was the Eleanor Cross is: • The name of the area; local people called it Queen’s Cross. • The remains ‘stood on a delicate eminence called Anemone Hill...... the grassy ground all about here still goes by the name of Queen’s Cross, among the people who tether their horses here in the summer time’ (diary, 21 December 1745) • The remains ‘stood on a grassy heath called by the town’s people Queen’s Cross’ (Letter to Samuel Gale, 6 January 1746) • Local tradition for a monument that had only disappeared 80 or so years before must be given due weight. • The size and shape of the remains Stukeley found. A monument with a polygonal base with 13 ft sides and a diameter of 30 ft, as Stukeley describes it, is a very substantial structure. It accords well with the other Eleanor crosses, but is otherwise difficult to explain.

It can therefore be claimed with some authority that the Stamford Eleanor Cross stood in the Foxdale area on the left hand side of Casterton Road as you leave the town. William Stukeley’s letter and drawing of the Eleanor Cross