Hardingstone Cross
This cross can be seen at the Benedictine Delapré Abbey in Hardingstone village, just outside Northampton, England. It is one of the three remaining Eleanor Crosses that are almost intact, having withstood inclement weather, wars and corrosion for over 700 years.
At the time of Eleanor's cortage this was a convent and so Eleanor's widower, King Edward, stayed at the nearby Northampton Castle.
To reach Hardingstone, the funeral procession turned westward toward Watling Street. A more direct route would have been to stay on Ermine Street. But Edward's close friend at the time was the Bishop of Cluny, and since Delapré Abbey was a Cluniac nunnery, it must have been comforting for him to have Eleanor's body rest there.
It is presumed a cross topped the monument and precisely when that disappeared is unknown, but records show that the top was bare at the time of the bloody Battle of Northampton on 10 July 1460.
