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Object type: Mid-wall shaft of baluster form
Measurements: H. 78.5 cm (30.75 in). Diameter at neck 27 cm (10.5 in)
Stone type: Very coarse-grained quartzose sandstone of mixed colouring, very pale brown (10YR 7/4) to brownish yellow (10YR 6/6). The composition is very largely quartz with some rotten potash feldspar and brown limonite coatings; grains are greater than 1mm in diameter, largely subangular but with some subrounded, and poorly sorted. Millstone Grit from the Upper Carboniferous of Yorkshire and consistent with some beds found near Knaresborough; the stone type is used in large quantity in Roman works in York.
Plate numbers in printed volume: Fig. 24; Ills. 19–20
Corpus volume reference: Vol 5 p. 102-103
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Complete mid-wall shaft of slightly bulbous profile, in one stone. Either end is formed in a similar profile with a single roll and bulbous or bell-shaped expansion, but slightly asymmetrically, having a broader base than cap. Around the centre of its girth is a group of four rolls of slightly irregular execution.
The stone type and reuse of the same material for other details in the fabric strongly suggests that this stone is a reused Roman shaft, as Rodwell (1986, 171) asserts. It has been reworked to give it the form and mouldings of a turned wooden baluster, and since this was not done on a lathe this represents a considerable expenditure of effort that along with other structural devices at St Peter's reflects the translation of dominant carpentry techniques into stone fabric (ibid., 171–4). A similar observation has been made about the most archaic Romanesque bases in England, which have comparable forms to the terminal expansions of the group of Barton mid-wall shafts (Rigold 1977, 106, 111 and fig. 3).
At Barton, the date of the shafts is given by the combined architectural and archaeological evidence for the date of the turriform nave, whose upper level was lit by the north double window (Barton 2) and its companion to the south (Barton 3). This is said to be late tenth century in construction (Rodwell and Rodwell 1982), and perhaps specifically dating shortly after 971 (Gem 1991, 827–8).
