In church library

First recorded in Malden 1911

St Mary

Broken and worn

The fragment is of square section. It is dressed flat to the left, is horizontally broken below, and is trimmed above, to the right, and to the rear.

A (broad): Along the upper and left-hand edges is a plain raised border. The face is decorated with an incomplete tight plain plait (probably originally six-strand) composed of broad low relief strands, and fitting closely against the border.

B–D: Cut away.

The small size of this piece makes its original function very difficult to discern. However, the nature of the decoration, interlace within bordered panels, and the square section of the fragment, are consistent with it having been used as a cross-shaft. The only clue as to its date is provided by the interlace decoration. The use of wide, flat, strands without interstices is typical of the tenth and eleventh centuries, especially in northern England as, for example, at Sockburn, co. Durham (Cramp 1984, i, 138–9, ii, pl. 136 (734–6)) and Middleton, Yorkshire (Lang 1991, ills. 676, 678).

Tenth to eleventh century

Malden 1911, 240; Johnston 1913, 51; Hooper 1945, 50; Kendrick 1949, 86; Nairn and Pevsner 1971, 425; Tweddle 1986b, i, 95, 247, ii, 445 - 6, iii, pl. 78b