Archive for the ‘Eleanor Cross’ Category

Lincoln Eleanor Cross main body almost complete

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

We have been following the progress of the carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln by sculptor Alan Ward. The main body of this historic new monument is now almost complete and Alan will shortly be beginning work on the slate wing and seating area around the base..

You can see that Eleanor is emerging from the stone. In my mind this is analogous to her re-emerging from oblivion after being destroyed by the Roundheads approximately 370 years ago.

It seems strange to thing that we have been covering this project on the blog with images and video whilst there will be no record of it being broken up all those years ago let alone of it being built, hundreds of years before that. I can almost feel the spectres of those involved walking around inspecting the statue making observations, or just quietly raising a ghostly eyebrow.

The original site of the Cross is lost although it is thought that it could be at the top of Cross O’Cliff Hill which stacks up when you think about it. The Church of St Katherines is at the bottom of this hill. The population of Lincoln at the time would only have been a couple of thousand people – a far cry from the busy town of today. The erection of the Cross would have been big news in those days. Let’s hope we can make a similar impact in 2014.

We don’t yet have a date for an official unveiling of the Lincoln Eleanor Cross but I certainly feel a party coming on. Perhaps recreate the drink that was on offer when the Cross was originally installed (I’ll have to check on that one as it may be just stuff like mead which is orrible and won’t play a part in any party of mine:) ). We certainly won’t be dishing out any gruel.

Lincoln based readers may want to make a mental note to revisit trefor.net periodically to look out for any announcement or by all means leave a comment and I’ll take that as a request to be notified. If you don’t want to go on public record re this just say so in the comment and I’ll keep it private. If you have previously commented this won’t work as these comments are not moderated in advance.

Lincoln Eleanor Cross – the story continues

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

Work on the carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln continues with artist and sculptor Alan Ward making good progress this week. When looking at the work being done by Alan you begin to understand why in historical times it might take years to carve a statue. By using power tools Al has been able to reduce it to a couple of months. There is an awful lot of stone to hack away at.

The following photos show some progress during the week. The first one to appear was taken a few days before the second. The third image is a close up of the wing, The others are videos with a short chat with Alan regarding this week’s work and a look at him in action smoothing out some of the wing

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – latest update

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

At this stage of the game pictures speak louder than words. Just after I was there the bishop of Lincoln swung by for a gander. Happy with progress apparently.

A few pics for you. Links to previous Eleanor Cross posts at the end of this one so that you can track progress with the sculpture. Much of the work is painstaking chipping away of large parts of the stone block that aren’t needed for the stature itself. You can see from the close up the striata where Alan Ward has been chiselling away.

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – Eleanor begins to emerge

Saturday, May 10th, 2014
The new Lincoln Eleanor Cross begins to emerge from its stone home. It’s pretty astounding that a solid lump or rock can contain a thing of such beauty and you already begin to get a sense for the character.
These two videos chart progress over a few days last week. A lot of time is spent just hacking out stone as opposed to making the shape of the statue itself. Better you watch the vids than me transcribing them here. It’s outdoors and there is a lot of wind around but it gives you a good feel for the working conditions of a jobbing sculptor 🙂

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

Friday, April 18th, 2014
The carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln starts.
Amazing that something of beauty can emerge from within a solid piece of rock – the mantra of the in awe armchair philosopher down the ages when describing a sculpture.
This series of photos shows the start of the carving process. The videos are a short interview with Alan Ward describing the task in hand and one of him doing some carving. On this occasion I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Eleanor Cross statue project – choosing the stone with artist Alan Ward

Saturday, March 8th, 2014
quarry_landscape

Choosing the stone for the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln project at the CDS quarry in Metheringham Heath.

Last week we covered the launch event for the new Eleanor Cross project for Lincoln. It’s been quite a wait to get the right piece of rock to start carving the statue. The quarry is only digging out new rock on a few days a month and often the pieces that come out are not of a suitable size or shape.

Moreover whilst the giant digging equipment that is occasionally brought can handle them the larger “lumps” are difficult to move using the quarry’s onsite kit and have to be carefully drilled to facilitate cutting into manageable sizes.

This first candidate on the right had already been moved into the main quarry working area. It might do the job as one of the halves. Alan and quarry manager Sean are seen discussing dimensions. For practical reasons the Eleanor Cross statue will be carved in two halves and cemented together. Otherwise the stone would be too heavy to cart to site for carving.

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New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

Saturday, March 1st, 2014
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance with exclusive coverage at the weekends on trefor.net.
Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I of England died in 1290 in Harby in Nottinghamshire. Her body was taken to the Gilbertine Priory at St Catherines in Lincoln where it was embalmed and the viscera remove to nearby Lincoln Cathedral.
After four days and nights in Lincoln the body was removed, accompanied by the King and his retinue to London, a journey that took twelve days. Following the burial in London King Edward commissioned a cross to be erected at each overnight stopping point.
Most of the crosses were destroyed by the Roundheads during the English Civil War.  A fragment of the original Lincoln cross remains inside Lincoln Castle. A new cross has been commissioned to be erected outside St Catherine’s Church, the starting point in Lincoln of the journey.
In December a meeting was held at St Catherine’s church at South Common to launch the project. The two videos below were recorded at the launch event. The first is with artist Alan Ward and the second is with the parish priest Father Ian who offers some particularly interesting insights into the history of the Eleanor Cross.

Tune in every weekend for updates on this project. Coverage was initially planned for philosopherontap.com but this is interesting enough to merit the wider readership that trefor.net offers.

Lincoln Eleanor Cross – launch of project

Saturday, December 21st, 2013

On Tuesday a meeting was held at St Catherine’s church at South Common to launch the Eleanor Cross project for Lincoln. The original Eleanor Cross was destroyed during the English  Civil War although a fragment of the base still exists in Lincoln Castle.

Philosopherontap is going to cover the whole project but in the interest of getting some info out there quickly here are a couple of video interviews taken at the church on Tuesday.

The first is with artist Alan Ward and the second is with the parish priest Father Ian.