In situ in eastern jamb of western bay of south nave arcade

See no. 1.

St Mary

Apparently good

It is returned along the south face of the wall, and decorated with four cable mouldings twisted alternately in opposite directions. The strands are well modelled and each has an incised median line; the incision has a V-shaped profile. Each moulding projects slightly beyond the one below. Along the lower edge is a narrow moulding of square section. Along the upper edge is a plain narrow step.

This piece originally formed the eastern impost of the south door of an aisleless nave, above which Walkern no. 1 was situated. The western impost was removed when, in the twelfth century, an aisle was built and an arcade cut through the south wall of the church.

Clearly the creation of the arcade implies that the impost is of earlier date, and an eleventh-century dating can be suggested if it is accepted that the door and the crucifixion figure belonged to the same architectural scheme (see Walkern 1 and Chap. VII). Confirmation of this dating derives from the form of the cabled mouldings on the impost. These are modelled with a V-shaped incision on the median line of each strand. This is precisely the form encountered elsewhere in works probably of the eleventh century, such as Little Munden in Hertfordshire (Ills. 318–19), and Dartford (Ill. 61) and Orpington (Ills. 105–7) in Kent.

Eleventh century

( --- ) 1883; R.C.H.M. 1911, 224; Pevsner 1953, 255; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 629, fig. 319; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 10, 51, fig. 4; Smith 1973, 30 - 1, fig. on 32; Tweddle 1986b, i, 178 - 9, ii, 502 - 3, iii, pl. 110b