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Object type: Incomplete grave-marker, in two pieces
Measurements:
a: L. 41 cm (16.25 in); W. 54 cm (21.25 in); D. 27 > 25 cm (10.5 > 9.75 in)
b: L. 32 cm (12.5 in); W. 30 cm (11.75 in); D. 28 > 27 cm (11 > 10.5 in)
Stone type: Pale yellowish grey (10YR 8/2–3) oolitic limestone, with ooliths of 0.5 to 0.7mm diameter seen in cross-section on carved face, together with scattered 5mm shell fragments, and one bivalve mould; one burrow-cast, 5cm x 1cm. Shell fragments are aligned parallel to the carved face of the stone, but bedding is not well marked. Upper Lincolnshire Limestone, Inferior Oolite Group [but not Ancaster or Barnack types]
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 180–4
Corpus volume reference: Vol 5 p. 167
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Two conjoined fragments from an upright rectangular grave-marker; with a missing third piece they would have made an almost square stone (54 × 56>54 cm) that has been latterly broken up. This probably represents a recutting of the original rectangular monument for secondary use by removing its undecorated foot. Secondary use is also evidenced by a shallow rebate, 5cm (2 in) square, against the lower cut edge of face A and a corresponding area of the surface of face C that has been roughly hammered flat: they imply some form of joint. Just conceivably this might represent the original mode of joining the decorated marker to a below-ground element.
Each face of the marker is very slightly tapered from the top down. Every surviving original surface is decorated.
A and C (broad): Identically decorated with a cable-moulded border that extends 44cm (17.25 in) down the arrises of the marker and terminates neatly on an angle. On both faces an identical rectangular cross of type A1, with arms extending to the border, is defined by a double incised line. The arms are of precisely equal width: the lower one presumably extended no lower than the cabled border does. At the crossing is a circular incised boss of 5cm (2 in) diameter.
B and D (narrow) and E (top): The other faces have only the cable-moulded borders.
This is one of the Lindsey group of closely similar rectangular markers found with a restricted distribution in Lincoln city and Lindsey (see Chapter V and Table 7A). Their similar distribution and occurrence at three sites with Lindsey-type covers may suggest that they functioned as head-stones in grave suites with such covers. Their width matches closely the norm to which the covers aspire and they would have provided the cross motif that is so noticeably lacking from those covers' decoration.
This is easily the most proficiently produced of the group: it is very accurately cut for example in respect of its border and cabling, with a layout that is metrically accurate. Hackthorn 2 is its closest rival in these respects (Ills. 190–4). Hackthorn also has the incised circular boss and is double-sided and tapered. But Gayton is the only one on which the cross extends to the border in all directions.
The date range of the group is defined on the one hand by its potential associations with the Lindsey covers and perhaps with the exceptional cover at Hackthorn (no. 1), and on the other by the incorporation of the Glentworth example in the fabric of the mid to late eleventh-century church west tower there.
