Showing in north and east faces of pillar. See no. 1.

Raine (1852) records that about eighteen fragments of sculpture found by Mr. Gilly in 1833 in investigating foundations of building in churchyard a few paces from east end of present church. Fragments built up into pillar by time of note in (-) 1869-79c, and possibly before Stuart (1867), whose plates show only faces now visible [1]. Pillar originally in churchyard: Allen and Browne 1885, 351; (-) 1889-90d, 243; Tomlinson 1891, 551. Removed indoors c. 1891: (-) 1891-2b, 49-54; Hodges 1893, 85. Very few fragments described before Stuart.

St Cuthbert

Cut away for reuse

A (broad): The shaft is edged by a single pick-outlined grooved moulding which encloses an extended crouching animal. This, as is clear from the taper of the shaft, originally faced up the shaft. The animal is surrounded by flat strap-like extensions from its head and tail but because of the damage to the shaft it is impossible to be sure of their organization. The head has a squared-off muzzle, an oval eye with a dot centre, and an awkwardly placed hook spiral by its front leg.

D (narrow): The shaft is edged by a single grooved moulding which encloses the remains of three widely spaced double free rings and long single opposing diagonals.

The difference in stone, the crude, shallow, grooved and picked technique of cutting, as well as the animal ornament, set this piece apart from the rest and seem to put it after the monastery had ceased to exist. It is possible that this shaft had been influenced by Anglo-Scandinavian animal ornament, although the head type derives from Hiberno-Saxon beasts.

Last half of tenth century

Stuart 1867, 20-1, pl. xxviii, 16; Adcock 1974, 287; Cramp 1978a, 13, pl. 1, 11

1. Those faces which are cemented into the pillar cannot be described but some descriptions can be based on earlier illustrations