WALTHAM CROSS
The Eleanor cross at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, was built by John Battle and his assistants, Simon, of Pabenham, and others, the ornamental sculpture, comprising shafts, heads, and bands, being executed by Ralph, of Chichester. This cross stood "a little north of the Horseshoe Inn." It was pulled down by the Puritans about 1646, but Cole, the antiquary, was assured by an old inhabitant "that he remembered part of it remaining at the western extremity of the town."
The same executants carried out the Bedfordshire crosses of Woburn and Dunstable. The last-named is described as "having been a cross of wonderful size. It stood in the main street ... where Watling Street crosses the Icknield way"; and "is said to have been demolished by troops, under the Earl of Essex, in 1643. Parts of" its "foundation ... have been met with during recent alterations in the roadway" (Dr James Galloway, 1914). "In the heart of the town" of St Albans stood another Eleanor cross, described in 1596 as "verie stately," the same executants as in the preceding instances being employed. The greater part of this cross was "destroyed by order of Parliament in 1643. Fragments, however, stood in the market place" until 1702, when they were cleared away to make room for the erection of an octagonal market house in 1703.
129. CHESHUNT
SECTION OF MIDDLE STOREY OF WALTHAM CROSS
Waltham Cross (Figs. [127], [128], and [129]) stands at the junction of Eleanor Cross Road and High Street, in the parish of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. The monument was the work of Roger Crundale and Dyminge de Ligeri, or de Reyns, in or about 1293. It was built largely of Caen stone. Apart from the difference necessarily entailed by its hexagonal plan, Waltham Cross in many respects recalls that of Hardingston, Northampton. In 1721 Dr Stukeley contributed to Vetusta Monumenta an imaginary "restoration"; which was followed, in April 1791, by an engraving, by Basire, from Schnebbelie's drawing, showing the cross in its actual state. It had by then become much dilapidated, nothing having been done to keep it in repair beyond the strengthening of the base with new brickwork in 1757. It is believed that the cross originally stood upon ten steps. These had entirely disappeared by 1791. The present steps, four in number, are quite modern. The cross, having been renovated in 1833 to 1834, and again in 1887 to 1889, has lost so much that practically no part of the original fabric beyond the core, the three figures, and parts of the lowest storey, survives. The pinnacle at the top is a conjectural "restoration," the ancient head, as in the cases also of Geddington and Northampton crosses, having so utterly perished as to leave no indication of how the cross should properly terminate.
130, 131. LONDON, WEST CHEAP