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

Previous Eleanor Cross for Lincoln posts include:

Eleanor Cross begins to emerge
Eleanor Cross – the carving starts
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

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.

Previous Eleanor Cross for Lincoln posts include:

Eleanor Cross begins to emerge
Eleanor Cross – the carving starts
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

The new Lincoln Eleanor Cross begins to emerge from it’s 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 🙂

Previous Eleanor Cross for Lincoln posts include:

Eleanor Cross – the carving starts
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

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 Gibertine 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.