Northampton - Queen Eleanor's Cross 70s Salmon postcard

Postcard

 

• Picture / Image:  Queen Eleanor's Cross, Northampton
• Publisher:  J Salmon (1-27-01-05)
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  8p red Machin
• Postmark(s):  Northampton 24 Oct 1979 wavy line
• Sent to:  Folkestone, Kent
• Notes & Key words:  has a few minor faults due to postal use plus some postmark ink

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal or Google Checkout ONLY please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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The Eleanor crosses were 12, originally wooden^{[citation needed]} but later lavishly decorated stone, monuments of which three survive intact in a line down part of the east of England. King Edward I had the crosses erected between 1291 and 1294 in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile, marking the nightly resting-places along the route taken by her body as it was taken to London. Several artists worked on the crosses, as the "Expense Rolls" of the Crown show, with some of the work being divided between the main figures, sent from London, and the framework, made locally. William of Ireland was apparently the leading sculptor of figures

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The Northampton cross is still standing at the edge of Delapré Abbey; the King stayed at nearby Northampton Castle. This cross was begun in 1291 by John of Battle. He worked with William of Ireland to carve the statues: William was paid £3 6s. 8d. per figure.

The cross is octagonal in shape and set upon some steps - the present ones are replacements. It is built in three tiers and originally had a crowning terminal - possibly a cross. It is not known when this became lost.^[6] A local anecdote says that it was knocked off by a low flying aircraft from a nearby airfield in WWII.

The Cross is referred to in Daniel Defoe's a "Tour through the whole island of Great Britain", where he reports on 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 (3 km) 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."

Its bottom tier features open books. These probably included painted inscriptions of her biography and of prayers for her soul to be said by viewers, now lost.