Little is known of the Grantham Eleanor cross, and no architectural fragments survive. It was discussed by David Stocker as part of his paper, ‘The Chapel Of St Peter and the Eleanor and Market Crosses’ in The Making of Grantham, The Medieval Town,  2011, Chap 11, pp. 183-193. The relevant section (pp. 190-193) of this publication is available to download HERE and a summary appears below:


When Eleanor’s cortège halted at Grantham, it is thought her coffin may have stood before the altar of the parish church (St Wulfram’s) – although St Peter’s chapel (now lost) is another option. The Eleanor Cross is said to have been constructed on St Peter’s Hill (near where the Isaac Newton statue now stands) and to have been the centrepiece of a busy medieval market place. The Grantham Civic Trust recently installed a plaque near the spot where it may have stood.

Memorial plaque near to the possible location of Grantham’s Eleanor Cross

It is generally accepted that the cross was destroyed by Parliamentarian troops c.1635, although William Stukeley complicates the issue by suggesting it was not demolished until 1728 – when he claims to have acquired ‘… some lyons with a coat of arms slung on their breast … Part of the cross, no doubt … one of the lyons I got and put in my garden…’. However, these seem doubtful components of an Eleanor memorial.

Stocker points out that there is a drawing of a spire-type cross, very similar to those erected as Eleanor crosses, in the Luttrell Psalter (f.159v) which was compiled c.1335-1345:

It is octagonal in plan, with a sub-base of seven steps, and a ‘dado’ of blind arches supporting the platform for the group of life-sized statues of the dead queen … Above, there were probably four life-sized statues, as at Hardingstone, each sitting beneath a vaulted canopy which itself rose to a crocketed spirelet … A black banner flies from the shaft of the terminal cross, indicating mourning.

As Stocker remarks, we cannot say whether the image represents the Eleanor Cross at Grantham, or those at Lincoln and Stamford, as the appearance of all three is unknown. Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (for whom the Psalter is thought to have been made) would probably have known all three monuments; his house at Irnham was just as close to Grantham as it was to Stamford, whilst Lincoln is double this distance. His route from his principal house at Irnham towards his other estates would have taken him through Grantham rather than either Lincoln or Stamford. However, while there can be no question that Sir Geoffrey would have known the Grantham Eleanor Cross, we cannot confirm the identification of the Luttrell image.