Museums

Presentation summary

Jenny considered the construction of the monuments from both documentary sources and studying the existing crosses and the remains of previous crosses. She illustrated the link between the quality of work on the crosses and when they were commissioned and constructed. The Northampton cross is started in the first year of cross building in 1291. As a result it has a larger amount of money allocated than other later built regional crosses. Jenny looked at the sources of stone for all the crosses including Caen and Purbeck from Corfe and the quality of the building materials involved and was able to put a name to one of the stonemasons involved, Richard of Gainsborough or Stow.  Richard was one of the sculptors and stone masons who also worked on Eleanors tomb. Robert of Corfe was paid for the rods, rings and hoods for the crosses at Waltham, Northampton and Lincoln. It is clear from the work that there is an initial enthusiasm around the project that results in significant funding and materials being released led by significant stone-masons but the later crosses have less resource and are contracted to local stone-masons. The Northampton cross is interesting as it is one of the first crosses reflecting perhaps the significance of Delapre Abbey to Eleanor. Jenny demonstrated that there are still lots of unanswered questions and lots more research potential around the crosses.

Speaker biography

Jenny Alexander studied Art History at the University of East Anglia and archaeology at Nottingham University. She has taught in undergraduate and adult education departments of various universities and worked as a consultant archaeologist on medieval and early-modern sites and buildings before moving to the University of Warwick. She is also consultant to the masons' marks recording project for the Works Department of Trondheim Cathedral (Norway). Dr Alexander is a member of the department's 'British Art & Architecture since 1750' research cluster. Through her research she has published a number of studies of individual buildings, as well as papers on building materials, and on aspects of medieval design and construction including masons' marks and the emergence of the architect, as opposed to the master-mason. Most of her work has been based on a detailed study of the fabric of medieval and early-modern buildings, a form of buildings archaeology, to determine the ways in which those buildings have been constructed. She has been working with English Heritage on Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire.