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Object type: Part of cross-shaft
Measurements: H. 87 cm (34.25 in); W. 37 cm (14.5 in); D. 21 cm (8.25 in)
Stone type: Coarse-grained, very pale brown (10YR 7/4) grit, without obvious feldspar; see no. 1.
Plate numbers in printed volume: 224-227
Corpus volume reference: Vol 3 p. 84
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A (broad): The plain edge moulding is very damaged. Within the single panel is a form of exploded scroll, consisting of a principal undulating strand flanked by discrete, tight spirals with hooked, offshoot leaves and wriggling stems, filling the spaces almost at random, with infills of pellets of varying sizes.
B (narrow): Plain edge mouldings flank an open five-strand plain plait, deeply cut. The strands are fairly narrow and flat.
C (broad): A similar moulding flanks irregular interlace, open yet badly arranged. It begins as four-strand plain plait at the top, expanding to six lower down. At the right-hand side is a serpent with undulating body and coiled tail. Below, the terminals of a more tightly organized six-strand plain plait survive.
D (narrow): Very worn, but the ornament was apparently identical to that on face B.
Kendrick used this shaft to exemplify 'belated scrolls', a degenerate version of Anglian plant-scrolls in the tenth century (Kendrick 1949, 65). The hooked leaves speak of that ancestry. The tight spirals are present in the scroll type hogback (no. 7) from this site, where horror vacui is expressed by the pellet infills in a similar way (Ills. 241, 244).
Similar taste for random spirals can be seen in late carving in the Ripon area, for example, at Masham, North Riding (Fisher 1865, pl.) and on an unpublished piece from Thornton Steward, also North Riding, where a similar disorganized layout is apparent.
