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Object type: Cross-head and part of -shaft
Measurements:
Total height (minus base): 104 cm (41 in)
Head: H. 45.7 cm (18 in); W. 51 cm (20 in); D. 15.3 cm (6 in)
Shaft: H. (max.) 45 cm (17.7 in); W. 30.5 cm (12 in); D. 17.8 cm (7 in)
Base: H. (incomplete) 42 cm (16.5 in); W. 65 cm (25.5 in); D. 58 cm (23 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (St Bees sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 1-4
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 45-46
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Ringed hammerhead (Fig. 6a) with lateral arms, type B10, and incomplete slab-like shaft [1]. The broad faces of the head and the ends of the transverse arms are bordered by a roll moulding and there is a similar vertical frame to the incomplete shaft panels. The lower moulding of the head on face A is cabled and there is an additional inner cabled moulding framing the shaft panel on the same face.
A (west, broad): At the centre of the head is a flat boss carrying an incised linear equal-armed cross; this is surrounded by a mixture of spiral-scroll and stopped-plait ornament. Similar ornament, with pellets, decorates the shaft panel, occasionally over-riding the inner cabled border.
B (south, narrow): The end of the arm carries an incised linear St Andrew's cross; the shaft panel is decorated with spiral-scroll.
C (east, broad): At the centre of the head is an encircled boss surrounded by spiral-scroll and stopped-plait; there is similar ornament on the shaft panel.
D (north, narrow): On the end of the arm is an incised linear St Andrew's cross; the shaft panel is decorated with spiral-scroll.
Though clearly linked to the spiral-scroll group (Introduction, pp. 33–8), several features distinguish this cross from others in that prolific school. It is, first, geographically and geologically isolated, being the only example found away from the coastal strip and one of the few in the group which does not use yellow/grey sandstone. Secondly, where other cross-heads survive from the school then they are both free-armed and carry a cruciform head-pattern; Addingham, by contrast, is a ring-head and lacks the typical type 2 form of head-pattern (see Fig. 7). What is more, it fuses spiral-scroll and stopped-plait ornament more incoherently than any other carving produced by the group. It seems therefore to represent an isolated and eccentric response to an ornamental fashion which was popular on the Cumbrian coastal strip.
The form of hammerhead, with its expanded lower arm, is closely paralleled at Gargrave, Yorkshire (Collingwood 1927a, fig. 111) and at Kilmorie chapel, Wigtownshire (ibid., fig. 113). The use of small incised crosses is but one example of a widespread taste for such ornament in the Solway area in the Viking period; in Cumbria they are found again at Aspatria and Brigham, whilst in south-western Scotland they occur on carvings from Ardwall Island, Drummore, Craignarget (Ill. 673), Kilmorie, Mochrum, Kirkmadrine and Whithorn, Wigtownshire (Collingwood 1922–3, pl. XIV; Allen 1903, figs. 523, 528; R.C.A.H.M. 1912, fig. 97; Anderson 1923, fig. 2; Thomas 1967b, fig. 30b). A solitary example to the east of the Pennines, from Middlesmoor, Yorkshire (Collingwood 1927a, fig. 112), is on a shaft whose shape and ornament are possibly linked to Addingham.