St. Catherines, Lincoln

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St. Catherine's is an area of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, at the end of the High Street and centred around a roundabout on the junction of the B1262 High Street with the A15, B1190 (Newark Road) and South Park Avenue (continuation of the A15). The area is bordered by the South Common in the east and the River Witham in the west.

1 St. Catherine's
2 St. Catherine's Church & The Priory Centre
3 Eleanor Cross - Lincoln
4 External links
5 References

[edit] St. Catherine's

The area is named after the dominant church of St Catherine's, a Grade II listed, landmark building. ^[1]

St. Catherine's has views over the South Common, is home to the Priory Centre (officially opened by Prince Charles after extensive conservation work), the original site of the Lincoln Eleanor Cross ^[1] and a residential area with some local businesses including Jacksons Workwear Rental , TopToners, New Road Fish Shop, Doctors' Surgery, Dentist, hotels and The Oasis shop. St. Catherine's is also the former home of the Witham Internal Drainage Board offices.

The residential property in St. Catherine's mainly consists of red brick built terraced housing, with some large detached and semi-detached houses, surrounding the local church of St Catherine's. The church of St Catherine lends its name to several roads in the area including St. Catherine's Road, St. Catherine's Grove and St. Catherine's Court.

[edit] St. Catherine's Church & The Priory Centre

The Priory Centre is a Multi-Use Access Centre, offering the wider community a flexible, friendly Community facility, providing a range of services and activities to all.

The main aim of the project is to restore and repair the fabric of a Grade II listed, landmark building, St Catherine's Church, Lincoln and the adjoining schoolrooms and halls, to form a new Multi-Use Community Centre and create a new sustainable Social Enterprise.

The Priory Centre state that the objectives are as follows:^[1]

To provide help and advice to the wider community
To offer a variety of activities within the centre
To provide learning opportunities and qualifications
To provide opportunities to learn new skills
To access skills for life materials
To provide friendly meeting places
To house Arts and Drama groups/sessions
To provide conferencing facilities
To provide networking facilities

[edit] Eleanor Cross - Lincoln

The St Catherine's, Lincoln, cross at Lincoln Castle

Queen Eleanor was taken ill on a journey to meet Edward and was diagnosed as having 'slow fever', she was taken to Richard de Westons manor house at Harby near Lincoln and it was there she died in the November of 1290. Edward was grief stricken at his wife's death and shut himself away for several days possibly planning memorials to his beloved Queen Eleanor.

The Queen's body was first taken to Lincoln for embalming at St. Catherine's Priory. The viscera was buried in a tomb at Lincoln Cathedral and her heart was buried at Blackfriars Church in London. Her body was taken to Westminster Abbey for burial in a tomb. King Edward later declared that to honour Eleanor, a memorial would be erected wherever the Queens body had rested on its journey home to Westminster. Crosses of this nature were erected in the hope that pilgrims and those passing by would pray for the soul of the Queen. The first of the Eleanor crosses was erected on Swine's Green, opposite the gates of St Catherine's. Of the 12 crosses erected only three now remain standing. In the grounds of Lincoln Castle there is a small piece of the St. Catherine's cross, that was originally in the Priory grounds.

The only remaining piece of the St Catherine's cross left that survives is kept in Lincoln Castle.^[1] The Priory Centre is planning to have a replica of the Queen Eleanor cross erected at the front of the Priory.