Waltham Abbey has featured in many deeply historic moments in England’s history.

King Harold prayed there before the Battle of Hastings and his body was brought back for burial after defeat by William the Conqueror. Henry VIII first met the future Archbishop Cranmer at the abbey and discussed his pending divorce which led to the Reformation.

In between these two events the body of Queen Eleanor was brought into the church on a dark December evening in 1290. It rested there for one night since Waltham was just one of several pauses in a long funeral procession.

Eleanor of Castile was the Queen consort of King Edward I. The marriage was a love match so when Eleanor died unexpectedly in Nottinghamshire her husband was bereft.

Her body was first taken to nearby Lincoln before the long journey south to London. Wherever the procession stopped at nightfall a cross was later erected.

Historian Alice Loxton has walked the route on the same Advent days and examined each surviving cross or its site. They are more of an elaborate tower than a plain cross. Her book Eleanor tells the story of her walk, her adventures when researching and Eleanor herself.

The rest at Waltham Abbey is commemorated a mile away at what is now called Waltham Cross. This is on the former main road and in the nearest village to the abbey which lay to the east.

The procession had been through Dunstable. Alice writes with approval of Luton and its heritage although the cortège passed to the west of the town heading for St Albans on the Roman road.

After a night at St Albans Abbey (now the cathedral) it was a long haul on St Lucy’s Day to Waltham.

Here Alice suggests Eleanor lay in an open coffin during the night of the 13 December. Her husband was not there having gone ahead at St Albans to London ready for the funeral at Westminster Abbey in four days time.

The capital lay 13 miles away and Waltham was the last stop before London. For Eleanor’s party it was a journey on the main road through lovely countryside. That green has been reduced to a corridor along the parallel River Lea and that is where Alice chose to walk.

After leaving the Premier Inn (near Enfield Lock) she was soon joined by friends to follow the Lea Valley Walk to Tottenham noting boats and on to Spring Hill overtaking the Jewish residents walking on the Sabbath.

The next Eleanor Cross is a lost cross in the City of London. And yes the very last one is Charing Cross but it’s been rebuilt on the wrong site.

That is the sort of detail this extremely interesting book includes. It is best read from the start and not just from Hertfordshire pages onwards. The one downside is the lack of an index but as there is not one you might as well enjoy the richness and easy reading from the start.

Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen by Alice Loxton (Macmillan; £22)

A new edition of the Lea Valley Walk guide is out marking the 25th anniversary of the first guide.

This fourth edition includes changes on the ground, new research and new pictures.

The first guide was commissioned for Millennium Year 2000 by the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority.

The fifty mile path follows the River Lea from just above Luton to go down the east side of London and join the Thames opposite The O2 arena.

In 2000 The O2 arena was known as The Millennium Dome.

The Walk highlights the capital’s hidden back garden which, whilst being the birthplace of the technological revolution starting with the lightbulb, has become more green over the last quarter of a century.

The 2012 London Olympics played a part in that transformation as well highlighting the Lea Valley and a place for recreation.

Railway stations on National Rail, the Weaver line and the Underground allow for easy access.

Below are some of the new photographs in the latest guide.

Hale Wharf lies immediately upstream of Tottenham Hale Lock and is known for its tall masted craft permanently moored.

The new buildings have water on both sides as the strip of land divides the Old River Lea from the navigation.

Hale Wharf in Tottenham Hale has been shortlisted for three major awards recognising excellence in design, sustainability, and community impact.

It is a community of 505 new homes, including 191 at affordable rent, in buildings designed by Allies and Morrison.

A new bridge connects to a nature reserve with water on three sides. To the east the Old River divides again each side of the 17th-century Ferry Boat inn with the remains of an ancient orchard.

Walking The Lea Valley Walk by Leigh Hatts (Cicerone) is available here.

If you are taking the tour of the Olympic Park found at the end of the guidebook it will be necessary to make small diversion .

Having followed the re-opened Greenway to the point opposite Pudding Mill Lane Station (page 127) you cannot now go sharp right.

DIVERSION: Cross the road and go right under the bridge. Continue ahead to pass under a second bridge. At the road go right across a junction and after a short distance turn right up to rejoin The Greenway.

The View Tube cafe is to the left. The route continues to the right with a view over the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (page 128).

Walking The Lea Valley Walk by Leigh Hatts (Cicerone) is available here.

Today 958 years ago William Duke of Normandy landed at Pevensey in Sussex.

News of this invasion brought King Harold back south fresh from his victory over the King of Norway at Stamford Bridge three days earlier.

As he passed down the Lea Valley he stopped at Waltham Abbey (then a minster) to pray before its famous Holy Cross which drew many pilgrims.

He was as we all know defeated about ten days later at the 1066 Battle of Hastings. The new monarch ‘William the Conqueror’ allowed Harold’s body to be returned to Waltham and buried in the abbey church.

The now shortened nave has left the last Saxon King’s tomb outside the east end where flowers will be laid at noon on Saturday 12 October.

The exit from Bromley-by-Bow station has been improved by taking pedestrians away from the main road.

To reach Three Mills: On leaving the station go left down steps and right through the tunnel. Now go ahead into the Leaside Lock residential development (no water to see yet) and bear left. At the far end bear right into Hancock Road to reach Tesco and go right into Three Mill Lane.

To reach the station from Three Mills: Walk up Three Mill Lane alongside Tesco and go left into Hancock Road. Do not join the main road but keep ahead to the left of the high building. At the far end bear right to go through the short tunnel and up steps to the station.

The Cody Dock bridge will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

This means that if you are walking south from Three Mills to East India Dock or Trinity Buoy Wharf you must break off at the Amazon building to walk through the industrial estate turning left at the second roundabout to reach Cody Road.

On other Christmas Week days Cody Dock and the bridge will be open from 11am to sunset.

After New Year’s Day the normal opening time will be 9am daily.

SS Robin was built in 1890 by Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Coat at Orchard Yard on the River Lea at Leamouth.

The 300-ton steam-powered coaster, now part of the National Historic Fleet, is the last of her type still in existence.

Next Sunday 10 December the fully restored SS Robin returns to Leamouth to permanently moor at Trinity Buoy Wharf at the end of Orchard Place and at river’s confluence with the River Thames.

The arrival is expected between 10am and 11am. The Wharf’s Orchard Café will be open from 9am to 4pm serving hot drinks and hot lunches.

The nearest station is East India DLR.

New background reading on the River Lea comes from Jim Lewis who has written many years writing about the valley.

Although this book claims to look at the river as a canal and has been promoted as being handy for those on the water it brings together Dr Lewis’s latest research.

He stresses that it is the Lea Valley and the River Lea but the navigation when a canal is the Lee. Hence the book’s title London’s Secret Canal: The River Lee Navigation.

There is a summary of the Lea Valley heritage with new information including a very compelling claim that Ponders End is ‘the birthplace of the post industrial revolution’.

Whilst the author is best known for his championing of the valley’s industrial heritage this book also dwells in sections on the remarkable amount of wildlife in the green corridor running down the side of the capital.

The launch of this latest work was appropriately at Myddelton House, HQ of the park authority, but the book rightly embraces the entire flow from Luton to Limehouse.

Waterstones at Enfield, Walthamstow and Liverpool Street, and other branches, are stocking the book.

London’s Secret Canal: The River Lee Navigation (Redshanks Books, £12).