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Object type: Part of cross-shaft
Measurements: H. 55 cm (21.5 in); W. 31 > 25 cm (12.25 > 9.75 in); D. 15.5 cm (6 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (St Bees sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 218 - 21
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 87-88
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Slab-like cross-shaft, each face with one incomplete panel. Faces A and C are bordered laterally both by a cabled moulding and an additional inner frame moulding; faces B and D have a cable-moulded border. At the top of face C is a flat-band moulding marking the top of the panel.
A (broad): Four prancing profile beasts, set one below the other and alternately reversed. All have backward-turning heads; their jaws, with the upper member curled, bite their backs. Each beast has a curled head-lappet, short tail, raised front paw, and a single back leg with marked haunch. There are possible traces of contouring on the bodies and an incised line across the neck may be intended as a collar.
B (narrow): At least four registers of free rings with long diagonals.
C (broad): Plain plait of six to eight cords.
D (narrow): Ribbon animal, head at the top of the panel, with incised oval eye and hollow ear. The beast's neck is split into two elements which interlace with two crossing strands, one of which terminates behind the head in a (foliate?) foot; the other, after crossing the jaw and neck, curls round behind the head. The body terminates in two human-like legs which are themselves interlaced with further swelling and looped elements below.
The ultimate source of the backward-turning beasts on face A, with their collars and raised paws, lies in the Anglian Trewhiddle style; so also, in all probability, does the curled ear lappet. By contrast their contoured outlines, the curled lips, and the foliate shape of their heads, are common elements in Viking-period zoomorphic styles. The beasts on face D, with their swelling and bifurcating bodies, are closer to the main stream of Scandinavian Jellinge art. The shaft thus neatly reflects the dual ancestry of tenth-century zoomorphic art in northern England.
