In front of pulpit (on south side of chancel arch)

Discovered c. 1840 during digging of tower foundations

St Peter

Good

The cover tapers pronouncedly. Only the upper surface is carved.

A (top): A high-relief central moulding of rectangular section is crossed at the mid-point by a second similar moulding spanning the width of the cover. Flanking the median moulding, leaving broad plain borders on the long edges, are two pairs of narrow, rectangular fields, ornamented in low relief. Those at the broad end contain four-strand plain plaits; those in the longer and narrower panels are three-strand. Their inner ends terminate on the cross piece, while their outer ends stop about a fifth of the way in from each end. Beyond, pairs of high relief mouldings of square section emerge from the median moulding and run towards the corners. Along the narrow ends of the cover are damaged, low-relief, plain borders.

This cover belongs to type 2 of the east midlands series first described and classified by Fox (1920–1). In this type there is a median ridge, central cross-bar and the ridge has U- or V-shaped ends. Interlace is confined to four panels flanking the median ridge (ibid., 25, pl. III). Archaeological evidence from both Peterborough cathedral and Cambridge castle, where covers have been excavated in situ, points to a date in the late tenth and eleventh centuries for the series, probably ending after the Conquest (ibid., 20–1, 23–4, 31–2). It is possible that they were manufactured in the region of Barnack, Northamptonshire, and exported from there. See also Cardington and London (St Benet Fink).

Tenth to eleventh century

Smith 1905, 355 - 6, fig. on 356; Page 1912b, 420; Fox 1920 - 1, 24 - 5; Cottrill 1931, appendix; Kendrick 1949, 82, pl. LIV; Pevsner 1968, 16, 126, fig. on 126; Fisher 1970, 81 - 2; Hare 1972, 84; Tweddle 1986b, i, 89, 218 - 20, ii, 424 - 5, iii, pl. 67b