Our first performance of the 2017 tour sees us open at Lincoln Cathedral. We are delighted to be performing in the beautiful vaulted Chapter House on November 28th, the very day that Eleanor of Castile died in 1290. It is so pertinent to be performing so close to the splendid tomb, where her viscera are buried and from where the funeral cortège set out on December 4th 1290 on its long journey to Westminster where her body was buried. ​In the years following her death Edward ordered the best craftsmen in the land to build 12 stone crosses in the places Eleanor’s body had rested overnight stretching from Lincoln to Westminster.

​

The Cross built in Lincoln has been lost. It probably stood outside Wigford by St Catherine’s Priory. This was at the junction of two Roman Roads: Fosse Way and Ermine Street, now Newark Road and Cross O’Cliffe. From here the funeral cortege would have turned away from the city leaving the Cathedral behind on the hill and taken Ermine Street towards Grantham. The memorial crosses were often built at crossroads and junctions so that travellers would be encouraged to pray for Eleanor’s soul. The cross was destroyed in the Civil War but a single remnant of the cross can still be seen today in the grounds of Lincoln Castle. It's recorded as being there since 1906 but was probably placed there much earlier.

 

Through the ancient art of storytelling you will enter Edward and Eleanor’s world, seeing the contradictory and glorious powerhouse she was; property magnate, mother, lover, bookworm, huntress, crusader and chess champion. This dramatic, tender and captivating performance is touring the monument locations – come and be part of the story!