Select a site alphabetically from the choices shown in the box below. Alternatively, browse sculptural examples using the Forward/Back buttons.
Chapters for this volume, along with copies of original in-text images, are available here.
Object type: Hogback [1]
Measurements: L. 124.5 cm (49 in); W. 18 < 25 > 20 cm (7.1 < 9.8 > 7.9 in); D. 27 < 42 > 37 cm (10.6 < 16.5 > 14.6 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (Penrith sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 452 - 5
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 131-132
(There may be more views or larger images available for this item. Click on the thumbnail image to view.)
Hogback, type b, with a curving ridge line and bowed side walls. Beneath the worn ridge moulding on both sides are three rows of tegulation of type 2b. The ridge line is broken at both ends by the upper jaw of an inward-looking end-beast. This animal has four legs, the pads of the lower limbs forming a border for the relief decoration on the walls.
A (long): Three raised panels, separated by unornamented areas, carry decoration which is unframed. From left to right these consist of (i) two closed circuit loops; (ii) stylized foliage ornament; (iii) a two-footed bird(?) or winged figure(?).
B (end): Undecorated apart from a simple outline cross executed in high relief.
C (long): This side has a raised panel organization similar to side A, the equivalent ornament reading: (i) parallel strips of step pattern type 1 or two-strand twist; (ii) stylized foliage ornament; (iii) two closed circuit loops.
D (end): Undecorated apart from a simple outline cross, type A1, executed in high relief.
This hogback belongs to the small 'pilaster' group of which Aspatria 6 is the most elaborate example; others occur at Wycliffe in Yorkshire and in Scotland at Inchcolm in Fifeshire (Lang 1972–4, 227, pl. 15; idem 1984, 169). Though the panel divisions may seem to echo the pilasters of contemporary church buildings, the type probably derives from the arrangement of ornament in parallel strips seen at Brompton, Yorkshire (Lang 1984, 99) or (more distantly), from the divisions of early Christian sarcophagi. The end-beasts are of the rare four-footed type found at Brompton, and at Heysham in Lancashire (ibid., 120, 138). The bird ornament seems best linked to the types appearing in the Tees valley, where there was a taste for free-style birds and animals in their own panels (Bailey 1980, 185–6; Cramp 1984, pls. 134; 136). Yet, since analogous motifs occur at Heysham and in the Isle of Man (Kermode 1907, nos. 93, 97, 101, 103; Lang 1984, 138), it would be dangerous to claim any exclusive link on this basis. Apart from a hogback at Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the cruciform motif on the gable-ends is unparalleled (Lang 1984, 131).
