Lying north-south outside the south side of the nave close to its south-west corner

None. The church was demolished and rebuilt 1779–81 (Everson 1981, 34; Bryant 1993–4) and this provides the most likely occasion for the stone's discovery.

St Peter and St Paul

Upper decorated surface extremely weathered to the extent that some decorative details, e.g. the cross-bar of the encircled cross, are difficult to read even where the surface remains, while the surface at the foot end is weathered away almost completely. The surface at the head end has been removed by mechanical damage.

A complete flat grave-cover of markedly tapering form and with a domed head end, decorated in low relief on the upper surface only.

A (top): An encircled rectangular-armed A1 type cross-head (similar to Cramp 1991, fig. 3.2, ring b) with a long stem. Below the encircled cross is an additional small cross-bar of wedge-shaped form (the equivalent of cross-arm type E6). There was evidently a complex foot, recorded by Butler (1961, 39, 154, fig. 8d; 1963–4, 107; 1964, 119–21, fig. 2C) as a V shape, but described in his field notes as 'primitive U foot'. The severe surface weathering now makes observation very tentative, but what appears to survive would be consistent with a semicircular or U-shaped foot and not one of V shape. Butler's published drawing of this cover (Ill. 427) is an imperfect representation of the proportions of its form and decoration.

Appendix A item (stones dating from Saxo-Norman overlap period or of uncertain date).

In the large collection of covers from St Mark's in Lincoln a distinctive form of flat cover with domed head comparable with this was identified, both decorated and plain, belonging to the broad period eleventh to thirteenth century (Stocker 1986a, 56, 58). At the same site, there was a tendency for the degree of tapering on covers to increase in the same period (ibid., 58). Both factors may reflect developments in contemporary stone coffins, and clearly suggest that Stallingborough 1 is not a pre-Conquest piece. Nevertheless Butler (1963–4, 107; 1964, 119–21) has drawn comparisons between its decorative scheme and products of his 'Barnack school' characterised by U- or V-shaped feet. Their late pre-Conquest precursors are found with interlaced infilling at Cambridge Castle and Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire (Fox 1920–1, pls. III, V) and at Lincoln Cathedral 1 (Ill. 230). Plain eleventh-and early twelfth-century or overlap examples occur at Howell 1 (Ill. 220), Lincoln St Mark 24 (Ill. 412), and Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire, and Tixover, Rutland (Butler 1964, 119–21). If the form of the foot at Stallingborough is U-shaped as suggested, it would fall more closely in this tradition: its form as a monument, too, is especially similar to the example from St Mark's. The additional 'bow-tie' cross-bar is paralleled on the early post-Conquest cover at Ingoldmells 1 (Ill. 402), and the minor crosses on the eleventh-century cover at Howell (Ill. 220) have distinctively round-ended arms and a similar general character. In that the Stallingborough cover is produced in a local poor limestone rather than oolite, it cannot be a Barnack product and may be viewed as a derivative piece (Butler 1964, 123). A cover at Gainford, co. Durham, with similarly en-circled cross-head (though of type B6), and long stem surrounded by and developing into incised diamonds, is thought to belong in the second half of the eleventh century (Cramp 1984, 153, pl. 152, 796).

Late eleventh to mid twelfth century

Butler 1961, 39, 154, fig. 8d; Butler 1963–4, 107; Butler 1964, 119–21, 123, fig. 2C