The Corpus: Sockburn 01

Volume I: County Durham and Northumberland

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Current Display: Sockburn 01, Durham

Overview

Object type: Part of cross-shaft [1]

Measurements: H. 68.5 cm (27 in); W. 19 cm (7.5 in); D. (max.) 29.2 cm (11.5 in)

Stone type: Coarse-grained yellow sandstone

Plate numbers in printed volume: Pl. 128.701-704

Corpus volume reference: Vol 1 p. 135

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Present Location

Conyers Chapel

Evidence for Discovery

Church unroofed and abandoned in 1838. Before this, carved stones noticed built into walls (Surtees 1823, 249). After abandonment of church several references to carved stones lying either in church or in Sockburn Hall, but very few described until after Knowles's excavation and bringing together of all known fragments in re-roofed Conyers Chapel in 1900.

Church Dedication

All Saints

Present Condition

Three sides completely destroyed by reuse

Description

A and C (broad) and D (narrow): Carving obliterated.

B (narrow): Enclosed in a wide grooved moulding are two motifs not separated by a horizontal moulding. Athe top are two large single twists, below, a six-strand plain plait. The hole pattern and the strand width are irregular but there is some attempt at modelling.

Discussion

The upper motif could be part of a simple twist pattern or two twisted serpents. The plain plait is quite unlike the other panels of plain plait with broad flat strands on 5 or 7. This style of cutting most resembles 8, face C.

Date

Possibly tenth century

References

Knowles 1896-1905b, 113, no. 4; Hodges 1905, 235

Endnotes

1. The following are general references to the Sockburn stones: Surtees 1823, 249; Longstaffe 1858, 82; (—) 1869-79f, liv; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; (—) 1887c; Eastwood 1887, 347; Allen 1889, 229; (—) 1889-90b, 132; (—) 1899-1900a, 60; (—) 1903, xiii; (—) 1909-10c, 239; Collingwood 1927, 148, 166, 169; (—) 1951-6a, 213; Pevsner 1953, 211; Lang 1972, 235-6; Schmidt 1973, 68-77; Morris 1976, 144; Bailey 1980, 91.