Reset in north wall of north aisle, towards east end, 1m from ground level and c. 2m from north-east quoin

None. The stone was clearly reused in this position when the north aisle north wall was rebuilt. There is an inscription on a nearby stone which says, '1820 this wall rebuilt on its former foundations. North door walled up', recording the event. This stone, however, had clearly been reused on a previous occasion and it is perhaps likely that it was found in the fabric of the original aisle wall when it was dismantled. The north arcade indicates that this wall was originally of c. 1300.

St Germain

Moderate. The original surfaces are somewhat weathered.

A section from a mid-Kesteven type cover. The visible face represents the flank, although only the upper parts of this decorated surface have survived a secondary recutting.

B (long): The decoration is divided into two panels – a vertical panel at one end and a long horizontal one. The two are separated by a double cable moulding. The arris between the flank and the lid is decorated with a single cable moulding. Both panels are decorated with interlace in low relief, that in the vertical end panel having an incised medial line. The motif employed here is no longer legible but it may have been of type i, iv, v, vi or viii (Fig. 10). The long horizontal panel was clearly divided into two zones of interlace of unequal size, but there is no evidence surviving to suggest whether it had a formal boundary separating them like the larger examples in the mid-Kesteven group. The lower zone of interlace was completely removed during the trimming for reuse, but the upper part of the panel is decorated with a run of simple three-strand plait which develops from a 'bull's head' (Fig. 11). The bull's head is now only just legible at the edge of the stone.

The style of sculpture, the motifs employed and the layout of the design make it certain that the cover represented here is a member of the mid-Kesteven group (Chapter V). It is reconstructed in Fig. 9 above, and it appears to have been an unremarkable example. Members of the group all date from the period between the mid tenth and the early eleventh century.

Mid tenth to early eleventh century

Butler 1963–4, 112, fig. 1, no. 2; Pevsner and Harris 1964, 698; Pevsner et al. 1989, 765