Winchester cathedral, in crypt of Lady Chapel (Winchester Research Unit, Cathedral Green, WS 3092)

Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1964 in demolition rubble of central crypt of Old Minster; Final Phase 59 (Provisional Phase 777), c. 1094

Old Minster

Five dressed faces (one incomplete) survive. The decorated surface has been almost entirely cut away by an area of rough tooling which passes into a deeply angled cut. A small area of the original bed

The stone was originally an ashlar measuring c. 79 cm by c. 70 cm, and 33 cm in thickness. It has two stages of secondary working, first seen in the trimming back of the carved surface by a sloping, but almost vertical face about 20 cm wide. This meets a sloping face, 39 cm long, which ends about 25 cm from the back of the stone in the original bed face. The same tooling as the recut sloping face has also cut away some of the same dressed face quite roughly. This tooling is made by a wide instrument, probably an adze, and is of Anglo-Saxon type. The original dressed face has also been cut by a (probably Norman) chamfer 11 cm (4.3 in) wide. This chamfer ends in a vertical face which cuts the earlier secondary tooling. The interlace bands are almost 5 cm wide with a central strip, 3.5 cm wide, subdivided into well-defined flat, rounded pellets (diameter, 2–2.5 cm). The carving is about 1 cm deep.

This stone was found in robber-trench D surrounded by stone chippings and lying on top of a moulded voussoir of early Norman type. It seems clear that both the voussoir and the present piece were abandoned among the demolition rubble of Old Minster after the rough dressing and chamfering of the latter. The interlace pattern continued to the left and right, as well as above, so that at least three more ashlars would have been needed to continue the pattern. The stone could have been associated with the first east end of Old Minster, which was remodelled at least twice: in the mid to late eighth century; and again in the late tenth century.

Tenth century or earlier

Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 148, no. 63