Built into the interior face of the south wall of the nave, high up, on its side

Found in 1870 during the restoration and left in situ (Rowe 1870, 241). Collingwood, who only recorded six pieces from Kirby Hill (Collingwood 1907, 338, 343), appears not to have seen any of the stones then inside the church, only those in the porch or graveyard.

All Saints

Broken yet very crisp; the shaft and neck survive. One face visible

A (broad) : The top of the shaft narrows to form the neck of the cross. There is a broad modelled edge moulding. In the neck of the cross are the two feet of a Crucifixion, the toes turned outwards and standing on a broad transverse bar which is contained within the edge moulding. Within the long panel at the top of the shaft is a loosely disposed headless human body. Below it is a standing human in profile sucking his thumb. Below his elbow is a horizontal bar below which is a crudely cut anvil. Below his feet are remains of two loops.

The Crucifixion was placed on the cross-head in the Irish and North Yorkshire manner (see Chapter V), establishing the Christian nature of this monument whose shaft carries the iconography of the Germanic hero Sigurðr (Sigurd). The limp figure at the top is the decapitated smith Reginn. Below, Sigurðr cooks the dragon's heart on a spit whilst sucking his thumb. The loops below may be part of the slain dragon Fáfnir (Lang 1976, 84–6). This is one of a small group of Northumbrian carvings which depict the Sigurðr story: the closest other examples are at Ripon (ibid., 86–7, fig. 4) and York Minster 34 (Lang 1991, 71–2, ill. 145), though the churchyard cross at Halton, Lancashire (Collingwood 1927a, 159–60, fig. 191) and some Manx cross-slabs (Kermode 1907, 170; Margeson 1980, 185–9) have the same iconography. As is usual for narrative scenes, the cutting is in free style rather than conventional. Sigurðr was a hero not a god, and the juxtaposition with the Crucifixion shows that the reference was compatible with Christianity. See also no. 9 below.

First half of tenth century

Rowe 1870, 241, fig. 8; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Allen 1890, 293; (—) 1890–5b, xxvii; Allen 1891, 170 (4); Page, W. 1914, 370; Stapleton 1923, 10; Mee 1941, 125; Lang 1974a, 14–15, fig. 12; Lang 1976, 84–6, fig. 2; Lang 1978c, 18, pl. IIIb; Coatsworth 1979, I, 249, 309, II, 29, no. 2, pl. 117; Smyth 1979, 271; Bailey 1980, 120–1, fig. 22; Margeson 1980, 191; Lang 1983, 187; Lang 1991, 71; Bailey 1996a, 92; McKinnell 2001, 344

[1] The following are general references to the Kirby Hill stones: Lunn [1867], 13; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Allen 1890, 293; Bulmer 1890, 734; Hodges 1894, 195, 201; Morris, J. 1904, 212, 420; Thompson 1908, 113; Stapleton 1923, 7, 10, 53; Morris, J. 1931, 212, 417; Pontefract and Hartley [1936], 126; Mee 1941, 125; Taylor and Taylor 1965, I, 355; Pevsner 1966, 210; Morris, R. 1989, 161; Muir 1997, 96–7.

[2] The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to no. 2: BL Add. MS 37552 no. XIV, item 629 (Romilly Allen collection).