North-western hogback of 'Giant's Grave' group

First recorded as part of group in Dugdale's drawings in 1664 (Calverley 1899a, 241)

St Andrew

Now split into four rapidly disintegrating pieces held together with iron clamps. The south side has been cut away; the decoration on the northern face is heavily worn

Hogback, type g, without end-beasts. On the north side there are three rows of tegulation (of unidentifiable type) on the pitched roof; no ridge moulding survives. At the left end of the wall below is a twisted serpent on whose head stands a small human figure, left arm bent and with right arm thrust towards the snake. At the centre and towards the right is another knotted serpent. The ground has not been cleared to form a panel.

Like other north-western hogbacks this stone reflects the local taste for thin monuments with figural decoration on the side walls. As on Penrith 6 and both Lowther 4 and 5, there is no clear lower frame to the ornament. The theme of serpent struggle is also repeated locally at Great Clifton and on Gosforth 5 (see p. 30).

Tenth century

Allen 1885, 354; Calverley 1888d, 469; Calverley 1899a, 249, pl. facing 240; Collingwood 1901a, 265–6, pl. facing 265; Collingwood 1903a, 383; Collingwood 1907b, 155; Collingwood 1915a, 181; Collingwood 1923a, 124–6, fig. on 123; Collingwood 1923c, 225; Collingwood 1927a, 166, fig. 198; Walton 1954, fig. 3b; Pevsner 1967, 17, 173–4; Schmidt 1970, 17, 28, fig. 4; Lang 1972, 236; Bailey 1974a, I, 302–3, 364, II, 218–19, pls.; Bailey 1980, 99, 140, pl. 28; Lang 1982, 60; Lang 1984, 88, 96, 101, 156–8, pl.; Cramp 1984, 143; Bailey forthcoming a