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Object type: Memorial stone or grave-marker
Measurements: H. 24.8 cm (9.75 in); W. 19 cm (7.5 in); D. 8 < 9.2 cm (3 < 3.5 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained, massive reddened sandstone
Plate numbers in printed volume: Pl. 158.819
Corpus volume reference: Vol 1 p. 164
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The face and sides have been dressed smooth, and only the face is carved.
A (broad): A cross with rectangular hooked ends (type A3) standing on a rectangular base is recessed about 0.125 in into the surface. In the quadrants formed by the cross-arms is an inscription in Anglo-Saxon capitals:
O · II R ·
P · II E ·
The letters have been cut with a chisel and punch. Serifs have been rather erratically added and the cutting is not very confident.
This type of memorial stone or grave-marker seems to be a variant of those on which the cross is shown in shallow relief. The form of the cross-arms is found at Hartlepool (no. 1) and on several Irish incised slabs at Clonmacnois and Tihilly (Lionard 1961, fig. 10). The placing of the inscription in the spandrels of the cross is not unusual, but if it is an abbreviation of OR(A) P(RO) E(—), then it is an unusual method of abbreviation. It seems more plausible that all the letters spell a single personal name, ORPE. It could be a shortened form of a name of which the first element was eorp-. The abbreviation mark over the O, noted by Okasha, could, however, be part of a fault in the stone.
