Geddington, a stone village a few kilometres north-east of Kettering, owns one of the most moving monuments in England. In the middle of the village stands the Eleanor Cross, a tall, slender, triangular stone spire, put up in the 1290s by Edward I in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile. When she died in Lincolnshire, her body was carried to London, and at each place where the procession rested overnight the king raised a cross. Twelve were built; only three survive, and Geddington's is the best preserved of them.
Close by, the River Ise slides under a medieval stone bridge beside a shallow ford, and on a warm afternoon children paddle there while riders sit on the wall. That, honestly, is the extent of the water: the Ise is a small river, not a swimming spot, and the lakes in the area are fishing or nature reserves rather than places to swim. Come here for shade and stone rather than a plunge.
The landscape is the old Rockingham Forest, once a royal hunting ground stretching across this corner of Northamptonshire, now a patchwork of woods, rolling fields and villages built in golden-brown ironstone. Brigstock, a few kilometres north, has a Saxon church tower and a country park in old quarries. Just outside Geddington, Boughton House, the seat of the Dukes of Buccleuch, is often called the English Versailles, with its long French-style front and avenues of trees.
The roads are pleasant rather than thrilling. The lanes between villages rise and fall over gentle ridges, with long straights and the occasional tight bend at a church or a bridge, and the traffic is light outside the main roads. The A43 and A6116 are faster and busier, used by lorries heading to the industrial estates around Corby and Kettering. Watch for farm traffic and for mud on the lanes in autumn, and for deer in the woods at dusk.
Kettering, about six kilometres away, is the nearest big town, with fuel, supermarkets and everything else, and Geddington itself has a pub and a small shop. It is a lovely, quiet place to pause, and the sight of that thin grey cross in the sunlight, more than seven centuries after a king's grief put it there, stays with you on the road home.