1a, loose at west end of nave; 1b, now lost

The discovery of stone 1a is recorded in the church guide (no author, n.d.) which says, 'Evidence of Saxon work was found when the chancel arch was enlarged between 1914 and 1917. Resting at the base of the font is part of a Saxon cross which was dug up out of the Churchyard.' It is unclear whether the two discoveries were contemporary. Both stones, however, are said to have been 'found lately during the alterations to the church at Allington, built face inwards in the chancel arch, taken down in 1924. Now in Grantham Museum', in a note made by Baldwin Brown probably recording information supplied to him by the then incumbent at West Allington (Edinburgh University Library, MS Gen. 1922/189).

Holy Trinity

The surviving worked surfaces of 1a are in good condition and only slightly weathered, if at all. 1b is lost.

Stone 1a certainly and stone 1b very probably are fragments from the same mid-Kesteven type grave-cover.

A (top): The surviving worked face of stone 1a represents one end of the central panel in the lid. The stone has been recut on all four sides and, subsequent to recutting, has been badly damaged along the new edges by breakages. The panel is bounded on at least one side by a cable moulding, although parallels would suggest that such a border was originally present on all of them. Within the border, one terminal of a centrally placed cross survives with interlace in the interstices, developing out of the extremities of the cross-arm itself. This interlace consists of a run of three-strand plait to one side and a more complicated arrangement to the other, the exact nature of which is lost in the broken area. Both strands of interlace are decorated with an incised medial line which is continuous across the terminal of the cross itself. On the most badly damaged interlace strand this medial line seems to develop into a cable motif which runs alongside the cross-arm.

Stone 1b is only known from a drawing (Ill. 383) in the Baldwin Brown archive at Edinburgh University Library (MS Gen. 1922/194). It shows a block decorated with a small scale three-strand plait, with incised medial line, set in a panel bordered on one side by a cable moulding and on another by an undecorated fillet. The style of interlace seems to match that on 1a exactly and it can be reconstructed in several locations within the same grave-cover.

These stones are very likely to have come from the same original monument. 1a clearly represents the central zone of the lid of a grave-cover of mid-Kesteven type (Chapter V), whilst the known decoration on 1b could also come from the lid panel (reconstruction in Fig. 9). From the exact parallels in Lincolnshire for the design of such lids at Eagle 1 (Ills. 157, 160), Burton Pedwardine 3 (Ill. 78), and Aisthorpe 1 (Ill. 1) (as well as from the near-complete Nottinghamshire examples at Hawksworth (Ill. 482) and Rolleston), it is possible to suggest that the cross motif at West Allington was probably one of a pair decorating the lid, which were joined by a single shaft and completely surrounded by interlace. The cover type is dated to the period between the mid tenth and the early eleventh century.

Mid tenth to early eleventh century

Pevsner et al. 1989, 97; Church guide, n.d.