The Corpus: Wath 01

Volume 6: Northern Yorkshire

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Current Display: Wath 01, Yorkshire North Riding

Overview

Object type: Shaft fragment [1]

Measurements: H. 50.5 cm (19.9 in) W. 22.5 cm (8.9 in) D. Built in

Stone type: Medium-grained slightly micaceous Millstone Grit, with sub-angular grains; colour masked by limewash but appears to be very pale brown (10YR 7/3). This could either be material from the Pennines to the west (cf. West Tanfield, p. 228), or from the Aldborough Roman fort (Plompton Grit from the Nidd valley).

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 851

Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 217-218

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Present Location

Built into the north interior wall of the organ chamber

Evidence for Discovery

Found in 1873 during the restoration of the church. Nos. 1–4 were reused 'in the external buttress which strengthened the jam of the chancel arch, and in the jamb itself' (Lukis 1875–6, 75). This buttress was on the north side of the nave, and probably of thirteenth-century date (McCall 1910, 138).

Church Dedication

St Mary

Present Condition

One face visible; very worn

Description

Damaged along the edges, the upper half has two standing human figures, depicted frontally. Their feet are turned out and they wear kirtles. The left-hand figure holds a staff diagonally inclined. The facial features may have been gouged within a head with a pointed chin. The right-hand figure has a similar head, the chin longer. Its inner arm is bent upwards, and above it is a vertical strip. The left-hand corner of the panel has irregularly shaped fillers (not Collingwood's pellets). Beneath the figures is a broad and deep incision below which the stone is undecorated.

Discussion

Crude work, it is impossible to identify the figures, though Adam and Eve have been suggested. Similar pairs of humans are found a little to the north in Richmondshire, for instance at Forcett (Ill. 252).

Date

Late ninth to mid tenth century

References

Lukis 1875–6, 75–6, fig. facing 75; Collingwood 1907, 271, 279, 286, 407, fig. b on 406; McCall 1910, 142–3; Collingwood 1912, 127; Collingwood 1927a, 179; Mee 1941, 245; Pevsner 1966, 378

Endnotes

[1] The following are general references to the Wath stones: Macquoid 1883, 230; Gregson 1893, 287; Bulmer 1890, 845; Bogg [1895], 306; (—) 1896–1905d, cxliii; Morris, J. 1904, 389, 420; McCall 1910, 138, 142; Page, W. 1914, 394, 395; Morris, J. 1931, 388, 417. The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to the Wath stones: BL Add. MS 37552 no. XIV, item 806 (Romilly Allen collection).