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Object type: Grave-marker
Measurements: H.45 cm (17.7in); W.49cm (19.3 in); D. 13 cm (5.1 in)
Stone type: Pale yellow (near 10YR 8/3) oolite grainstone, with ooliths of 0.3 to 0.4mm diameter and scattered 1mm pellets and fine shell fragments. Ancaster Freestone, Upper Lincolnshire Limestone, Inferior Oolite Group (as North Rauceby 2a)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 420–3
Corpus volume reference: Vol 5 p. 288-289
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A double grave-marker decorated with two crosses in low relief on both broad faces. The sides and top are smoothly dressed.
A and C (broad): Both sides of the marker are the same, i.e. they have two circular panels above a waisted stem. The crosses are of type A1 and the elements are of semicircular section. The cross-heads sit in coupled recessed fields defined by a simple border, also of semicircular section. The stems pass down through the height of the monument in recessed channels.B, D and E (narrow sides and top): The monument has the remains of 'ears' projecting beyond the enclosing circles of the cross-heads, one of which has now been broken off.
Appendix A item (stones dating from Saxo-Norman overlap period or of uncertain date).
Trollope (1853, 63) suggested that this fine marker was cut to commemorate a husband and wife or two children. He considered it alongside the other examples of multiple markers, of which several were found at North Rauceby, and Bracebridge 2 (Ill. 401) also belongs to this group. There are also a number of examples, though decorated only with cross pattées, listed in Appendix F [separate PDF]. North Rauceby 3, although clearly related to this larger group, is a very distinctive monument. It is in a low relief, as opposed to an incised technique, and in this it is more akin to the single markers Beelsby 1 and 2 (Ills. 392, 394) and Cabourne 1 (Ill. 396), and it is also closer in shape to these Lindsey examples. Similar 'ears' are found on several cross pattée-derived designs in two dimensions (e.g. Castle Bytham 2, Ill. 452), and in three dimensions on the cross-head at Keddington (Ills. 458–9). The closest parallel in the county, however, is the monument represented by the cross-head at Westborough (Ills. 468–9) which has a type B6 crosshead in a very similar low relief technique also confined within a circular field.
Most of the parallels for multiple markers of the North Rauceby type belong to the late eleventh or twelfth century and have cross pattées or related cross-heads based on circles. The fact that North Rauceby is both relatively well executed and that it has the earlier type A1 cross may suggest that it belongs to the late eleventh rather than the twelfth century.
