Attached to wall at west end of nave

First noted 1846(?) built in as lintel of entrance to clock-room tower

St Mary

Broken but unworn

The shaft is edged by a fine roll moulding which ends with the carving about half-way down the block.

A (broad): A ribbon animal with reptilian head has its body crossed in a loop at the top, and its tail coiled round until its tip crosses into its mouth. The body is double-outlined, and pelleted within the looped formation. There is a strange break almost like another head at the bottom of the loop. The creature's body is knotted and crossed by two strands which rise from the ten-strand plain plait below, and link with what is possibly a similar panel above.

B (narrow): A complete panel of changing interlace. The terminals are in six-strand plain plait with median-incised strands; in the centre are four registers of a chainlike pattern which could be thought of as a variation of pattern A (Adcock 1974, 352).

C (broad): A composition of two naked bound men. The upper figure is squatting and holding his out-turned legs. His head is rounded with features lightly incised; his shoulders are exaggeratedly square. On either side of his head is a knot from which fall strands which join a bar-like feature, which penetrates his arms and body. Other knots and strands below his feet enmesh the standing figure below. His figural characteristics are the same as that above, but he is standing and seems to be holding his phallus outlined with a free ring. On either side of his body are simple twists and his out-turned feet are encircled by a large double loop.

D (narrow): A panel of six-strand plain plait with median-incised strands and regular breaks.

This interesting shaft has obvious links with Gainford 2 in the competent regular plaits, and also in the coiled serpent attached by two strands to a panel of plain plait. The bound men in interlace have some affinities with the basket-work men of Cheshire and Staffordshire, but their bodies are complete. The squatting posture is found elsewhere in Scandinavian art, as is the phallic figure. Altogether this shaft, like 2, gives the impression of a new intermingling of Anglian and Scandinavian traditions. The interlace on face D is well cut with fine strands and regular hole points, while on B there is an experimental quality in the change.

First half of tenth century

Longstaffe 1846, 259; ?Walbran 1846, 11 and fig.; Longstaffe 1858, 81-2; (—) 1887b; Boyle 1892, 671; Hodges 1894, 80-1; Hodges 1905, 231; Hodgkin 1913, 138; Pevsner 1953, 147-8; Adcock 1974, 351-2, pl. 180A; Morris 1976, 142

1. The following are general references to the Gainford stones: Greenwell 1880-9b, lxviii; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; (—) 1887-8b, 373. Brock 1888, 176, refers to stones in a graaden (later taken to Durham) and mentions illustrations by STuarts but does not describe them individually. (—) 1905-6b, 343-4, refers to discovery of stones in 1864-5 restoration, and there is also a reference to the finding in 1905 of another stone in the field west of the churchyard wall, and to the discovery of bones and a sword in the churchyard in 1889.