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: Part of cross-shaft
Measurements: H. 93 cm (36.5 in); W. 33.5 > 29 cm (13.25 > 11.5 in); D. 12.5 cm (5 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (St Bees sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 68 - 71
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 58-59
(There may be more views or larger images available for this item. Click on the thumbnail image to view.)
The incomplete single panels on faces A, B, and D of this slab-like shaft are flanked by roll mouldings; there are traces of a similar type of border on face C.
A (broad): At the top is an interlace, a form of half pattern F with outside strand, terminating in the lower right corner in a zoomorphic head with curled upper jaw and almond-shaped eye. The strands are median-incised except at the top where they carry a second incised line. In the upper left corner there are traces of a binding laid across the strand. Immediately below is a form of ring-knot with lozenge-shaped tie. Curling extensions protrude at each turn of the strands and there is a trilobed extension at the top of the tie. Pellets are interspersed within the knot and flank the lower right side.
B (narrow): Three complete (and one incomplete) registers of simple pattern E with median-incised strands. At the bottom the strand terminates in an animal head of which only the round eye and hollowed ear now remain.
C (broad): Broken away.
D (narrow): Six registers (with part of a seventh) of simple pattern E with traces of median-incised strands.
Beckermet school (Introduction, pp. 38–40). The use of triple strands and bindings is repeated in the group on Haile 2 and Workington 4. The interlace variant on face A is found again on Beckermet St John 3, 5, 6, and, reversed and badly laid out, on Workington 4. It does not occur outside the Beckermet school. The beast-head on face A with curling lip and marked forehead is of recognizable Jellinge type and is clearly related to the heads on Beckermet St John 3 and 5. The zoomorphic terminal on face B must have been identical to that on face B of Beckermet St John 6 and side B of Haile 2. The ring-knot with curled extensions resembles that on Beckermet St John 3, but in its trilobed extension it stands alone among English sculptures. Such extensions are, however, a feature of Viking-age carvings on Man which, in turn, reflect a persistent motif in Scandinavian art (Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1980, figs. 7, 19, 42, pls. XXI, XXII, XXIII(a), XXVI, XXVII(i)). Though the Beckermet example could derive independently from Scandinavia, its isolated occurrence in western England probably points to a Manx link (Bailey 1980, 222).
