For Grimsby fans!

I promised a dear friend of mine, a great fan of her home town of Grimsby, that I would explain Eleanor's links to the area - and today I am making good on my promise!

In 1275 Eleanor arranged for a revised dower allocation. As part of that deal she surrendered her existing Lincolnshire properties of Grantham and Stamford (both later Eleanor Cross sites) and instead she took, along with the City of Lincoln, the town of Grimsby and the Soke (or manor) of Caistor. These lands in Lincolnshire were partnered with properties just the other side of the Humber: Hedon and Burstwick.

The grant of Grimsby was a valuable one. Grimsby, though a small town, was already a thriving port. Aside from fish, it boasted trade with Newcastle for coal, Norway for timber and wines from France and Spain.

As usual, however, Eleanor was looking out for other properties in the neighbourhood. She already had lands in Gayton le Marsh and Tothill, southeast of Grimsby - and this may have directed her attanetion to Grimsby as a dower property in the first place. She added further lands at Gayton at around the time of the dower acquisition.

And, entirely in line with her usual practice, Eleanor visited the area with Edward in March 1276. In the course of two weeks, the royal party conducted a whistlestop tour via her south Lincolnshire properties at Nocton and Dunston, before visiting the Humberside properties and (via Limber) Grimsby itself, followed by Caistor and then the Gayton and Tothill properties.

Eleanor was never to make her way back to Grimsby - later trips into Lincolnshire finished at Lincoln itself. However it seems likely that had her health allowed, the 1290 trip would have extended this far - Eleanor was conducting a fairly thorough tour of her properties when she died. Indeed her final moves were to take her in the direction of Lincoln and her Lincolnshire properties. Harby, where she died, is just a few kilmettres short of Lincoln.