Volume I: County Durham and Northumberland

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Current Display: Billingham 07, Durham Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
In north wall of church tower, outside, c. 25 ft up eastern edge
Evidence for Discovery
See no. 1. Not mentioned or drawn in Stuart (1867)
Church Dedication
St Cuthbert
Present Condition
Worn
Description

Only one carved face is visible. Part of a moulding which may have been originally a double roll moulding survives. It encloses what appears to be a composition of interlinked birds. At the top one bird quite clearly has a long gull-like beak and round eye. Its head is bent forward on to its chest. One angular wing is raised above its back, and another lies against its body. One leg ends in a three-clawed foot; the other is gripped in the beak of the bird behind. Its tail extends into a wide flat interlace. The bird behind is less decipherable but its tail seems to interlace with the other's.

Discussion

Compositions of interlinked birds are rare in Anglo-Saxon sculpture, and this is not like the only other one from Northumbria – that at Aberlady, East Lothian. The worn condition of this stone may give a distorted impression of the carving. However, it is plausibly derived from bird compositions such as are found in the Lindisfarne and Lichfield Gospels. Other stones from Billingham (nos. 12 and 13) demonstrate parallels with works, both in manuscripts and sculpture, from other early monastic centres. However, the style of this carving is so widespread that it could, like Woodhorn (no. 1), be a late revival of Hiberno-Saxon motifs (Introduction, p. 32).

Date
Early tenth or early eleventh century
References
Gilbert 1946-50, 204; Taylor and Taylor 1965, 69-70; Morris 1976, 140
Endnotes
1. The following are general references to the Billingham stones: Longstaffe 1858, 82; Hodges 1887-8a, 126; Hodges 1923-4c, 280; Fisher 1962, 50; Taylor 1978, 747.

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