Built into base of east wall of south porch, outside

Reused in fifteenth-century south porch; first recorded in R.C.H.M. 1916

St Mary

Broken and worn

Only one face is visible. It is sub-rectangular and roughly broken on all four sides. Along each of the upper and lower edges are two groups of three concentric, semicircular mouldings of half-round section. The outer moulding of each group unites with those of its neighbours, and the group to the lower left encloses part of a recessed, flat field. In the concave-sided, lozenge-shaped central field is a low relief boss.

The decoration of this fragment is so closely related to that of Saffron Walden no. 2 that it seems likely that they were part of the same cross-shaft.

The decoration of these pieces and that of the grave-cover from Oxford Cathedral (Ill. 362) are closely related. The latter probably dates to the mid eleventh century, and a similar date is possible for the Saffron Walden fragments. The nature of the decoration provides some support for this dating. Nested geometrical shapes are used on a number of east midlands grave-covers which Butler dates to the eleventh century, such as the examples from Waterbeach and Wood Walton, Cambridgeshire (Butler 1956, 90, figs. 1.1–1.2).

Eleventh century

R.C.H.M. 1916, 233; Tweddle 1986b, i, 95, 248, ii, 453, iii, pl. 82a