Select a site alphabetically from the choices shown in the box below. Alternatively, browse sculptural examples using the Forward/Back buttons.
Chapters for this volume, along with copies of original in-text images, are available here.
Object type: Part of cross-head
Measurements: H. 44.2 cm (17.4 in) W. 32.8 cm (12.9 in) D. 17 cm (6.7 in)
Stone type: Fine- to medium-grained Millstone Grit, feldspathic with sub-angular grains. Original colour light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4), burnt to pink-reddish yellow (10YR 7/4–6). Millstone Grit (Namurian, Upper Carboniferous) of local origin (Wensleydale)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 812
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 213
(There may be more views or larger images available for this item. Click on the thumbnail image to view.)
Part of a wheel-head cross of type B10 with wedge-shaped arms and a ring of type (a) recessed from the face. The arm-pits are slightly angled.
A (broad) : A plain narrow edge moulding follows the perimeter of the cross. A Crucifixion fills the cross-head, with a blank rectangular filler above Christ's head in the upper limb. His face is pear-shaped, with eyes and nose cut in low relief. Christ wears a long ankle-length robe below which the small feet are damaged. There is a horizontal incision across the hips, with an elongated waist above it. On the chest, but not at the intersection of the cross, is a deeply incised roundel. In the lateral limb of the cross, the arm dips at the elbow and the large hand is splayed. Below the arm are three rough blank fillers.
The wheel-head is a common Anglo-Scandinavian feature of Yorkshire crosses and indicates a date after c. 920 when the Norse-Irish infiltration occupied the northern area of the Riding (Bailey 1978b, 178; Lang 1991, 30). The placing of the Crucifixion on the cross-head is another fashion introduced from Ireland, contrasting with the earlier Anglian examples which adorn the cross-shaft. The cutting is inexpert on this cross, even primitive, as the crude filler-blocks assert. It should nevertheless be compared with the cross-head Crucifixions of Kirklevington 15 (Ill. 438), Stanwick 7 (Ill. 768), and those in Ryedale: Sinnington 11 (Lang 1991, ill. 814) and Ellerburn 8 (ibid., ill. 437); also with the cross-head from Balsitric, Co. Meath (Harbison 1992, I, 25, II, fig. 64). The distintive roundel on the chest is also found on Thornton Watlass 2 and Stanwick 7.
