City and County Museum, Lincoln (accession number 15.72)

The shaft's original provenance is unknown. It was apparently purchased by Mr Herbert Gibson from an antique dealer, Mr Palethorpe, in about 1920 (letter of 5/4/72 from the Director of Lincoln Museum in museum's parish file; see also Davies 1926, 12). By Davies's time it was mounted against a garden wall at Mr Gibson's farm in Digby (Hunt 1928–9). The stone was taken into the City and County Museum collection in 1972 shortly before the farm was sold (Marjoram 1973, 42; Webster and Cherry 1973, 145). The fact that the shaft was on the market in Sleaford in the early part of the century prompts the suggestion that it may have belonged to Charles Kirk and have been obtained by him from one of his church restorations (see Chapter I). We have found no corroborative evidence for this suggestion, however, and are no nearer to suggesting from whence it originally came.

Moderate; A, B and D somewhat weathered, C is badly abraded. The shaft is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, Lincolnshire No. 65.

Two pieces which join to form the lower part of a large standing shaft decorated in low relief. Face C has been very greatly abraded where it appears to have been reused as a threshold. If, as is likely, the shaft was originally of symmetrical section, then a great thickness (up to 5cm) appears to be missing. The shaft has two drilled holes in its upper surface, which is itself greatly weathered. There is a rectangular socket in face A for a metal fixing which probably relates to a period of reuse. The shaft stands on an undecorated integral plinth which was clearly originally set in a socket in a cross-base, as the differential weathering line where part of the plinth was protected from the elements is clearly visible.

Three original faces (A, B and D) survive, although it is likely that face C was also decorated in similar fashion to face A. Originally there must have been angle rolls on all four corners of the shaft, but only two survive. Both are unornamented, but terminate above the plinth in miniature finely-worked shaft bases. These bases are of Attic sequence and have a pronounced upright fillet between the lower torus and the scotia.

A (broad): Filled with a symmetrical acanthus leaf trail in low relief. Four leaves survive, which are regularly disposed to either side of the stalk and are broad and fleshy with many scooped terminals.

B and D (narrow): No decoration beyond the facet created by the undercutting for the angle rolls.

C (broad): Defaced.

Appendix G item (the continuing tradition).

Although this shaft has entered the literature as one of the late seventh century (following Clapham 1926 and Hunt 1928–9), we cannot agree and suggest, instead, that Digby is one of the late cross-shafts of Lincolnshire which are decorated with Romanesque motifs (Chapter IX). For Digby the argument for a twelfth-century date is easily made. First the bases of Attic sequence which terminate the angle shafts are undoubtedly of this period and would be without parallel in a seventh- or eighth-century context (Rigold 1977). The bold angle rolls themselves are also not of a type usually found at such early dates. Indeed the cross-section of the shaft more generally is difficult to reconcile with such an early date; the shaft is very thin relative to its width, always a sign of a late date in the East Midlands, and the narrow sides are undecorated except with the facets created by undercutting for the angle rolls themselves. This latter feature is also a characteristic of late shafts and is seen in Lincolnshire on Crowland 2 (Ill. 457) and Revesby 1 (Ills. 470–1). The form taken by the acanthus leaves is also quite consistent with a twelfth-century date. In Lincolnshire, there are acanthus trails of this general type on the Cathedral west doors (probably carved during the late 1140s or 50s) and at St Mary's Guildhall, Lincoln (perhaps of the 1150s) (Stocker 1991, 33–41). None of this carving, however, is on the same scale as that on the Digby shaft and, probably as a consequence, none has such outsized leaves. The closest parallel for the decoration at Digby, in fact, is probably provided by the shaft at Revesby (Ills. 470–1), which has a very similar trail on its broad face, though little survives. Outside the county the shafts at Barnborough and Thrybergh, Yorkshire WR, both have acanthus trails of similar form and they are usually dated to the twelfth century (Collingwood 1915, 135, 249–50). In addition, therefore, to the late date suggested by the form of the shaft and by the angle roll bases, the acanthus decoration also points to a mid twelfth-century date rather than to one in the pre-Viking period.

Clapham 1926, 4–5; Davies 1926, 12, pl. IV; Hunt 1929, 81 and plate; Rice 1952, 142; Marjoram 1973, 42; Webster and Cherry 1973, 145

The following is an unpublished reference to Digby 1: Lincoln, City and County Museum, file on Digby parish (letter dated April 1972).