Conyers Chapel

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.

All Saints

Broken at top and ends; worn

Type g, illustrative.

A (long): Traces of the roof regulations (type 9) survive at the top. On the left is a broad grooved moulding, and below a narrower grooved moulding with a more rounded section. These enclose a smoothly dressed panel, in which two horsemen canter to the right. The riders hold what seem to be a snaffle and bit with short reins in their left hands and a spear in their right. The spears pass at an impossible angle behind the horses' necks. The horsemen are without helmets but may wear close-fitting caps; they sit on high-backed saddles, and the one on the left is braced back against it. The horses, which are shown in lively motion, have long muzzles, pricked ears, and round eyes. Their long tails are knotted.

C (long): Nothing remains of the enclosing mouldings and the whole face is very worn. It is entirely filled with an ingenious composition of an upper and lower row of free rings, intersected by widely spaced long diagonals which enclose the rings in a series of scallops. The spaces between the knots are filled by rows of pellets.

The bold lively formulae for both faces of this monument set it aside from other such recumbent monuments as a truly creative carving. The spearmen on horseback are related to Hart 1 and Gainford 4 in iconography but not in style of carving. The freedom provided by the wide spaces has been splendidly exploited. On face C the widely spaced strands and knots are unusual in Anglo-Scandinavian art. It seems that the artist was copying late Anglian interlaces.

Late ninth to mid tenth century

Knowles 1896-1905b 119, no. 21, fig. on 120; Hodges 1905, 236; Hodgkin 1913, 230; Schmidt 1973, 71; Bailey 1980, 234-5, fig. 69; Lang 1984, 166, no. 9

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.