A small group of walkers are currently undertaking an unusual sponsored walk of 225 miles. They have been following the route that the funeral cortege of Edward I's wife, Queen Eleanor, took in 1290. Further details can be found on Kettering Borough Council's newspage.
Queen Eleanor was the wife of Edward I. She died in 1290 after 36 years of marriage. The King ('Hammer of the Scots' - and the destroyer of Welsh independence) was heartbroken.
Eleanor's body was taken from Lincolnshire where she had died - to her final resting place in Westminster Abbey. Edward ordered that a memorial cross be erected to her memory at every place the funeral cortege stopped overnight on its way to London. Today only the crosses at Waltham Cross (Hertfordshire), Geddington, and Hardingstone (both Northamptonshire) remain, and the cross at Charing is remembered only in the name Charing Cross.
The final days journey was along King Street (now - more or less - the route of Whitehall) from the village of Charing to Westminster Abbey. The Cross at Charing has given its name to the railway station - though the original cross was destroyed by Parliamentary forces. It was seen as a symbol of the monarchy. After the restoration some of the men who had signed Charles I's death warrant were hung, drawn and quartered on the site. An equestrian statue of Charles I (which had been hidden during the Civil War) was erected there in 1676. It still remains - and is the point from which all distances in Britain are measured.
A Victorian replica of the Eleanor Cross (though larger and more ornate than the original) stands outside the station.
