Stamford Pointy Thing – a Different Point of View

A couple of weeks ago I blipped the ‘Stamford Pointy Thing’ – so named because I could not find out what it was, and no one else had any ideas either.

Today I decided to look for any plaque or other bit of information on or around it but could find nothing but lots of discs embedded into the stone seats around the pointy-thing. The discs have seemingly random words engraved in them (look at image in large – those are just a sample), but nothing to tell anyone what the pointy-thing is all about. Although I have now found a few websites with pictures and basic info (see link below) nothing gives any more info about what it represents – the name discs nor the point.

Then a grumbly old citizen of Stamford seeing me brandishing Mrs W’s old camera took the trouble to impart the knowledge that “they wasted £70,000 pounds building that thing”. It turns out that it is a modern version of ‘Queen Eleanor’s Cross’ which is “lit up at night”!

A fragment of the original cross is apparently in the Stamford Museum and the roses on the pointy-thing are a copy of it.