Both parts of North Muskham 1 are reused high up in the quoins of the west tower of St Wilfrid's church (Ill. 155). Stone 1b is located in the south-west quoin approximately 1 m (five quoin-stones) above the point at which the south-western buttress emerges; stone 1a is in the equivalent position in the north-west quoin, approximately 1 m (five quoin stones) above the point at which the north-western buttress emerges.

The two parts of the grave-cover are reused in the lower part of the North Muskham tower (below a later belfry phase, see Ill. 155), which is usually agreed to date from the later twelfth century, as the tower arch is evidently of the same phase as the north arcade and the latter has 'waterleaf ' capitals (Keyser 1907, 231; Pevsner and Williamson 1979, 211). The original grave-cover was evidently redundant by that date.

St Wilfrid

The exposed faces are somewhat weathered, but the original monument appears to have been simply cut along its mid line for recycling.

The two stones appear to be mirror images of each other. Together they will have formed a long chest-like grave-cover standing some 30 cm proud of the ground surface. The arrises between the sides and the lid were decorated with a pronounced angle-roll, and it seems clear (from the south end of stone 1a, at least) that the angle-roll did return along one end — and probably therefore both ends.

Appendix A item (stones dating from Saxo-Norman overlap period or of uncertain date)

The archaeological context of these two stones is critical. First, their reuse symmetrically in the north-west and south-west quoins of the tower strongly suggests that the two stones belong to the same original monument, cut in half longitudinally for recycling here. Furthermore, the tower in which they are reused is comparatively securely dated to the later twelfth century, and this in turn implies a date no later than the early twelfth century for the production of the grave-cover. In fact a date in the late eleventh or early twelfth century would be expected by comparison with the similar grave-covers at Blyth 1 and Mattersey 1 (above, Ills. 145–6, 153–4), of which the former is unlikely to be much earlier than the foundation of the priory there in 1088. A similar date has been argued for an example of this type of monument from St Mark's church, Lincoln (no. 27; Everson and Stocker 1999, 286), whilst the fragment at Halloughton (no. 1, Ill. 151) situated six miles to the south west in Nottinghamshire (p. 202 above) might represent another cover of similar type.

Late eleventh or early twelfth century

Unpublished