Monks' Dormitory, Durham cathedral, catalogue no. XXXIII

Found in restoration of 1864, possibly in south wall of nave, which was taken down. Kept in Vicarage garden until 1896 when donated to chapter library, Durham

St Mary

Chipped but unworn

Head, type A11/C11. Broad faces enclosed by a roll moulding.

A (broad): Top arm: eight-strand plain plait; lower arm: eight-strand plain plait; right arm: mutilated; left arm: half pattern F, all with median-incised strands. In the centre is a raised and chamfered boss with four inset linked triquetras.

B (narrow): End of horizontal arm: a four-strand plain plait.

C (broad): Top and horizontal arms: eight-strand plain plait, rather irregularly executed with median-incised strands, surrounding a raised central boss with recessed petal design; lower arm: confused interlace, with median-incised strands, framed by a grooved moulding.

D (narrow): End of horizontal arm: bungled closed circuit pattern D.

This type of head is like 3 and 14 in the stone and treatment of the central roundels. Its stone type does not seem to fit any of the surviving shafts.

Tenth century

Stuart 1867, 64-5, pl. cxiii, 6-7; Boyle 1892, 671; Haverfield and Greenwell 1899, no. XXXIII, 100-1, fig. on 100; Hodges 1905, 230; Collingwood 1927, 87; Cramp 1965a, 6

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.