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Object type: Cross-incised slab
Measurements: H. 138.5 cm (54.4 in); W. 43 > 28.5 cm (17 > 11.5 in); D. 19.5 > 12.5 cm (7.75 > 5 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (St Bees sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 15 - 16
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 47-48
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This slab is roughly shaped. It tapers slightly at the 'base'.
A (broad): This face is more smoothly finished than C. The cross is incised in the broader end of the face and the area around it is lightly pick marked to form a rough background panel. The cross is now asymmetrically placed in the width of the stone. The horizontal arm on the left is deeply cut to the edge, but on the right is inset. The cross is a simple A1 type and incised with a pick or punch. It is 38.5 cm (15 in) high and 36 cm (14 in) wide.
B (narrow): Smooth with traces of mortar.
C (broad): Roughly cut.
D (narrow): Rough and broken.
Although it is not impossible that such a slab could have covered a cist or lintel grave, it is equally plausible to see it, like some Welsh, Manx, or Scottish slabs (Nash-Williams 1950, XXII and XXIII; Thomas 1971, figs. 56 and 60), as an upright grave-marker.
The unique occurrence in Cumbria of this type of slab has occasioned much comment. Bailey (1960a), claimed a Celtic context for it and saw it as a survival of Celtic custom, before the Anglian supremacy in the area became established. His seventh-century dating depends partly on Nash-Williams's dating of inscribed Welsh crosses, and partly on the distribution of this type of slab (Introduction, p. 12). Thomas, who published a map of outline and incised cross-slabs (Thomas 1968, fig. 37), sees the occurrence of the piece as evidence for the continuance of a sub-Roman diocese around Carlisle, and a date between fifth and seventh century has usually been proposed (Bailey 1974a, I, 17–19).
The discovery in 1977 of a very similar slab at the Hirsel, Coldstream (Cramp and Douglas-Home 1977–8, pl. 13), has reopened the question as to how long the use of such grave-markers or grave-covers would have survived in areas outside the Solway basin where Celtic and Anglian Christian customs could have co-existed or fused. It seems unwise to be dogmatic about the date of such pieces or to suppose that they could not have co-existed with free standing crosses, since no churchyards in this region have been fully excavated. The submergence of Addingham churchyard may have caused the exposure of a type of grave-marker which normally lies more deeply buried in those ancient churchyards which have continued in use. Alternatively, this slab may have been reused in a later structure.
