Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I of England ("Longshanks"), died at Harby in Notts. in 1290. The Queen's body was taken to Lincoln and thence to London for burial at Westminster Abbey. At each place the cortege made an overnight stop, a stone monument was erected in her memory. These stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham X, Cheapside and Charing X. Stamford's Eleanor Cross was destroyed after the Civil War but a fragment of it was found in what was the garden of William Stukeley's house in Barn Hill in Stamford. It is made of Sussex marble and has a rose design carved into it. In 2009, Wolfgang Buttress created a homage to the cross incorporating impressions of the stone rose. It stands in Sheepmarket in Stamford.
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