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Object type: Part of hogback
Measurements: L. 70 cm (27.5 in); W. 33 > 24 cm (13 > 9.5 in); D. 43.2 > 41.3 cm (17 > 16.25 in)
Stone type: Fine-grained, very pale brown (10YR 8/4) sandstone; deltaic channel sandstone, Saltwick Formation, Aalenian, Middle Jurassic; probably from North Yorkshire Moors, since it seems too large to have survived as a local glacial erratic.
Plate numbers in printed volume: 423-426
Corpus volume reference: Vol 3 p. 125
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Hogback, type e. The rounded roof is covered in (probably six-strand) plain plait with median-incised strands, boldly carved in high relief. It loops downwards from the roof into the normal position for the fore leg of the end beast; on face A the strand actually joins the base of the beast's jowl, the head forming a terminal. The end beast is a flat mask on the top of the stone. It has a broad, flat jowl with two drilled nostrils and an incised mouth running round the rim. It is inclined upwards, away from the prominent pellet eyes which have a circle in the centre of each. Large ears (or 'eye-brows') in high relief join between the eyes at the base of the jowl.
The dragonesque type of hogback evolved from the earliest Allertonshire (North Riding) forms, whose naturalistic bears shrank or disintegrated into mere terminal masks. At the same time, the architectural features of the roof (ridge and tegulation) gave way to formal decorative patterns. The majority of hogbacks in Ryedale and eastern Yorkshire are of this type, suggesting a later response to the Allertonshire group. The closest parallels for the Barmston hogback are at Lythe, North Riding (Lang 1984a, 152–3, nos. 9, 11), and it is the only example of this type of monument in the East Riding. Perhaps the monument was imported (by sea?) from Lythe shortly after its manufacture, a possibility which would be consistent with the stone's geological affinities, as well as explaining its stylistic links.
The hogback was a form of monument with a very short history, probably being produced during the ascendancy of the Viking kingdom of York in the mid tenth century.
Morris 1919, 61; Collingwood 1911a, 258, figs. a–b on 257; Collingwood 1912a, 131; Collingwood 1927, 167, fig. 204; Mee 1941b, 85; Lang 1967, 24–6, 383–4, pl. I; Pevsner 1972, 167; Lang 1984a, 99, 108, 114, pl. 115; Lang 1989, 2
