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Queen Eleanor Cross

The Queen Eleanor Cross in Hardingstone was built by King Edward I in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile, who died in 1290.

Upon her death in 1290 in Lincolnshire, the body of Queen Eleanor was taken to London. Twelve crosses were built to mark the route of her funeral cortège on the way to her burial in Westminster Abbey. The crosses were erected at the places where her funeral cortège stopped overnight.

The Cross in Northampton stands close to Delapre Abbey. It was referred to in Daniel Defoe's 'Tour through the whole island of Great Britain' where he wrote about the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675, "...a townsman being at Queen's Cross upon a hill on the south side of the town, about two miles off, saw the fire at one end of the town then newly begun, and that before he could get to the town it was burning at the remotest end, opposite where he first saw it."

The plaque at the foot of The Queen Eleanor Cross reads: