British Museum, no. 1880.3-13.3

See nos. 0 and 3.

St Hilda

Very worn

The sides are rough, but the back is dressed smooth.

A (broad): The face is surrounded by a flat slightly bevelled border and is quartered by a cross, type A4, in low relief. Its centre is very worn but could have been diamond-shaped. Latin inscriptions, probably in Anglo-Saxon capitals throughout, extend over all four quadrants:

(a) Upper two quadrants:

 OR[A] II [—]

 [E—] II [—-]

(b) Lower two quadrants:

 OR[A] II TEPRO

 [—] II [. .]D[. .]

 [—E—] I I [—UI]D

The inscriptions are much weathered, so it is difficult to see even the letters. Okasha (1971, 78) reads in (ii): ORATE PRO [GE] R [-] ED [LES] U [ID], let alone the reading of Brown (1921, 65): (i) ORA PRO EDILVINI: (ii) ORATE PRO VERMUND ET TORHTSUID. This reconstruction repeats names found on other Hartlepool stones (see 3 and 4).

The inscriptions are very crowded, and the repetition of the request for prayer suggests that the one in the lower quadrants may be secondary. Since it is not possible to determine the form of the names, one can only speculate as to their gender.

This stone, though markedly worn, is distinctive in several ways. The form of the cross which is stepped at the ends of the arms and in the centre, is not found elsewhere among the Hartlepool stones, The bevelled moulding is comparable with 4, as is the request for prayer, but the second at least of the requests here is in the plural, which most readily makes sense if the stone were visible above the grave or inside a church. Since both this and 4 were found in a cemetery, and since both are weathered, they were probably on the surface of graves.

Mid seventh to mid eighth century

Haigh 1846, 188 and fig.; Sharp 1851, 26-33; Haigh 1858, 20-1 and fig.; Haigh 1875, 367, no. 9, pl. ii, 7; Hübner 1876, 70, no. 193, and fig.; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; Pettigrew 1888, 27, fig. on 30; Allen 1889, 215-16; Boyle 1892, 611; Hodges 1894, 6; Hodgson 1895, 205; Hodges 1905, 212; Hodgkin 1913, 154; Howorth 1917, I, pl. facing 94; Brown 1918-19, 201, fig. 4, 5; Brown 1921, 65, pl. 6; Smith 1923, 121-2; Collingwood 1927, 12, fig. 16F; Hodgkin 1952, fig. 48; Scott 1956, 201; Okasha 1971, 77-8, pl. 47

1. The following are general references to the Hartlepool stones: Charlton 1855-7, 70-1; Haigh 1873, 269; Smith and Cheetham 1880, 1979; Stephens 1884a, 189; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; Browne 1886b; 12; Howorth 1914, 47; Peers 1914-15; Clapham 1930, 75; Rivoira 1933, 153; Pfeilstűcker 1936, 127; Kendrick 1938, 110; Henry 1965, 158; Page 1973, 25.