Fixed to the north window sill in the sanctuary, against the west splay

'Taken from the chancel wall in October or November, 1904' (Collingwood 1907, 408)

Holy Trinity

Middle section of a shaft, the reverse face dressed off; crisp

A (broad) : The edge moulding is a double roll, the inner one very narrow (0.8 cm). Within the noticeably tapering panel is an open tangled plant-scroll which has buds and off-shoots but no developed leaf forms. The stems are narrow and well modelled, the cutting as deep as 1 cm. The main strands climb at the sides of the panel, the curling off-shoots interlacing in the middle ground. Some shootlets have a drop leaf, the node is ridged, and one tendril is scrolled.

B (narrow) : The double edge moulding is rolled. The right-hand side of the face is damaged. Within the panel is an open, deeply cut plant-scroll with median-incised stem and a tight bud in the spandrel.

C (broad) : Not visible, but 'destroyed' (Collingwood 1907).

D (narrow) : The double edge moulding is as on face A. The left-hand side of the face is damaged. The panel has a deeply cut plant-scroll with a narrow modelled stem. Offshoots bear tightly closed buds and paired leaves supporting triple fruit. The design is open.

The freedom and looseness of the plant-scrolls make for an organic rather than geometric design. The leafed fruit of face D has models in Late Antique plant-scrolls, but here the tangles of the plant's growth are more naturalistic than formal. The narrow sides work in regular registers but face A may well have been cut free-hand without griding. It is adventurous work.

Late eighth to early ninth century

Collingwood 1907, 269, 274, 275, 284, 291, 408, figs. f–h on 409; McCall 1910, 158–9, pl. XXXVII; Collingwood 1912, 128; Collingwood 1915, 274, 285; Brøndsted 1924, 43n; Collingwood 1932, 50; Pevsner 1966, 382; White 1997, 47

[1] The following are general references to the Wensley stones: Barker 1854, 183; Barker 1856, 183; Whellan 1859, II, 439; Hodges 1894, 195; (—) 1906–11a, xxxiv; (—) 1908b, 468; Bolton 1915–16, 228; Morris, J. 1931, 397, 417; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 251; Mee 1941, 249; Morris, C. 1981, 234; White 1997, 47. In November 1915 a skeleton with its head to the west was discovered in Wensley churchyard, together with a late Anglo-Saxon sword, knife, spearhead and sickle (Bolton 1915–16, 228–30; Wilson, D. 1965, 41–2). The burial was 4 ft 6 in below the surface, and adjacent to mortared stone foundations running north–south. Wilson dates the sword to the late ninth century. (Eds.)