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Object type: Grave-cover
Measurements: L. 147 cm (57.9 in) W. 49.2 > 43.8 cm (19.4 in > 17.3 in) D. Built in
Stone type: Coarse feldspathic Millstone Grit with some muscovite mica inset. Probably light yellowish brown (c. 10YR 6/4), but dirt is masking the true colour. Possibly from the Red Scar Grit, found extensively capping the hills on the west side of Wensleydale.
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 745
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 198
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A broad plain edge moulding extends along the long sides and possibly across the head of the slab at its wider end. At that end are two horizontal runs of interlace in modelled strand; simple pattern F with medial terminations and bar terminals at the ends (Collingwood'shows only one strip of interlace). Much of this interlace is very worn. The main body of the panel is filled by a large double-ended cross with a narrow double outline. The cross-head at each end is of the same kind: the lateral limbs of type E10 with widely-curved arm-pits and expanding arms with curved tips, and the upper limb almost a hammer-head with boldly curved tip and sharp, horn-like corners.
The cross-heads are joined by a broad common stem with the continuous double outline. The cross-head at the narrow end is somewhat smaller and the end is damaged. Flanking the stem which runs down the centre of the slab is a pair of distinctive ring-knots. Each has a pair of elliptical strands which terminate in a Stafford knot at the extremities and, at the centre, split to interlace with a free ring and to join the next ellipse. The right-hand free ring has associated pellets above and below it. The strand is narrow and modelled.
This is an unusual design for a grave-cover in the region, though the fragment Gilling West 8 (Ill. 261) is a twin, probably by the same hand. There is a rougher version of a double-ended cross on Sockburn 25, co. Durham (Cramp 1984, 154, pls. 153 and 154, 801), which Cramp assigns to the late eleventh century. This piece from Spennithorne, however, could be as early as the mid tenth century, as its split-strand ring-knots are of the same family as those on a hogback in Cumbria, Gosforth 4 (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 105–6, ill. 320), and the pattern F interlace would be acceptable at that period. There may be influence from the Fenland group of grave-covers (Everson and Stocker 1999, 46–50, ill. 486).
