West end of nave, inside

Greenwell (1880-9c, lxxvi) records that shortly before May 1886 the vicar and two masons repaired church and removed plaster from walls. They found remains of pre-Conquest chancel arch, triangular opening from chancel to nave, and several pre-Conquest fragments. Only nos 10, 12 and 13 specified before Boyle (1892, 620) who only specifies one more, while adding that there were four or five fragments with interlace. Hodges (1894, 2) records six fragments with interlace but does not individually describe them until 1905.

St Mary Magdalene

Broken and worn

Edged and divided into panels by flat-band mouldings.

A (broad): (i) A neatly laid out six-strand plain plait. (ii) A man on horseback facing left. He holds a spear in his hand, and his hair is knotted behind. The horse's head and neck are raised; its ear is pricked up.

B (narrow): The tip of the shaft preserves part of the projecting chamfer of the head. Below is a panel of tangled plant-scroll. It has one main trail, and around it are looped stiff stems terminating in small pointed leaves.

C (broad): Above is part of the neck moulding; below two panels. (i) Six-strand plain plait. (ii) A very worn composition of a human figure(?) on the right, with hand outstretched to an animal(?).

D (narrow): (i) Como-braid divided by a flat-band moulding. (ii) Fragmentary interlace.

The motifs on this cross relate to the Anglo-Scandinavian work of the Tees valley: the plain plait panels and Como-braid are found on Sockburn 7 and at Brompton, Yorkshire, where the same type of plant-scroll also occurs. Horsemen are also found at Gainford (no. 4) and Sockburn (nos. 3 and 14). The plain plait is more confidently carved at Sockburn (no. 7) than here, but it seems to be a motif associated with Anglo-Scandinavian monuments, whether crosses or hogbacks (Introduction, p. 18). Despite the impossibility of deciphering the worn figural panel on face C, the layout of ornament on the cross seems to have most in common with the Sockburn/Brompton schools. In execution it is less competent than the work from these centres.

Mid tenth century

Hodges 1905, 352; (—) 1946-50, 365, pl. 7

1. The following are general references to the Hart stones: Greenwell 1880-9c, lxxvi; (—) 1887-8a, 16; Boyle 1892, 620; Hodges 1894, 2; Pevsner 1953, 158; Taylor 1978, 749.