Historical sketches of old Charing. / The hospital and chapel of Saint Mary Roncevall. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the monuments erected in her memory.

by Sir James Galloway

Northampton.

The cross at Northampton is the only one remaining of the five built by John Battle and his partners. It occupies a site on the east of the main road leading south, at a distance of about a mile from the town, in the parish of Hardingston. The road rises slightly as it leaves the flat land of the Nene Valley, and on this little elevation the cross was erected. It was the proximity of the religious house of Cluniac nuns (S. Maria de Pratis), now Delapré Abbey, which determined the spot where the funeral procession stopped for the night. This cross stands quite in the open country, and its fine proportions can be easily seen. Unfortunately it has suffered much, both at the hands of time, but especially from the restorer, and much of the original decorative work has disappeared. Its strong, beautiful outlines give the observer a high idea of John Battle’s skill as a designer.

Fig. 16.
The Cross at Northampton, from a photograph by the Author, 1908.

The cross is situated on a platform surrounded on all sides by an ascent of nine steps. From this the cross, which is of octagonal outline, rises. The lowest story is supported by buttresses at the angles, and the faces thus formed are divided into two panels by a perpendicular moulding. Surmounting the panels is a series of decorated gables. The panels show alternately shields with the arms of England, Castile and Leon quarterly, and Ponthieu. In addition, every alternate face is ornamented with an open book.

The second story is arranged also to give an octagonal outline, but consists really of the quadrilateral solid column of the cross, on each face of which stands the statue of the Queen, about 6 ft. in height, facing north, south, east and west. Attached to this solid column is a series of eight open tabernacles, elaborately and beautifully decorated.

Above this tabernacle story rises the solid four-sided column of the cross, panelled and adorned with pointed tabernacle work, reproducing the designs of the story below. The column originally terminated, in all probability, in a cross-shaped finial. This no longer exists, the feeble effort to replace the terminal cross during the restoration of 1713 being happily removed.

The first restoration of the cross of which we have particulars was in 1713. It was carried out very badly, and certainly in bad taste. Further repairs were undertaken in 1762, during which the benefactions of the restorers were duly and pompously notified on the cross itself. Careful repairs were carried out in 1884, and now the care of the cross is vested absolutely in the Northampton County Council. In spite of the destruction due to early restorations, the Northampton cross remains a remarkable tribute to the skill of the architects and builders of the period, and a fine example of English decorated work.

It is difficult to obtain an idea of the cost of the crosses erected by Battle. The executry accounts give evidence of a sum of nearly £400 paid to Battle and his partners, but this money was on account of the five Midland crosses. We know that the accounts are incomplete, so that the amount spent was no doubt larger than this sum; possibly also a larger amount may have been spent upon the cross in such an important position as at Northampton than in certain other places.

In addition to the money which passed into the hands of Battle, considerable sums were paid to William of Ireland and Ralph of Chichester, who were entrusted with the sculpture of the statues of the Queen, and the finer ornamental work represented by the constantly recurring item, the “virgæ, capita et annuli.”

The building of the cross involved another very important piece of work at Northampton. The roadway from the town to the Queen’s cross passes over the flat marshes of the River Nene. Robert Harrison (Robertus filius Henrici) received £80 for the construction of a causeway across the marshy land, and certain sums were also expended in laying the pavement. The necessity for such a “rood-way” is obvious to anyone who has visited the spot, and the building of the causeway would have been regarded at the time as a work of piety.