Volume 6: Northern Yorkshire
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Current Display: Wensley 05, Yorkshire North Riding
Overview
Object type: Shaft fragment [1]
Measurements: L. 32 cm (12.6 in) W. 16.5 cm (6.5 in) D. Built in
Stone type: As Wensley 1 (Holy Trinity)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 871
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 223
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Present Location
Built into the exterior north wall of the tower, horizontally, 1.8 m above ground
Evidence for Discovery
None. The tower was rebuilt in 1719 (Pevsner 1966, 382).
Church Dedication
Holy Trinity
Present Condition
Only one face visible
Description
A broad plain perimeter moulding forms three sides of a panel of four-cord plait, resolved in box points at one end. The strand is narrow and modelled; the hole points drilled. Above the transverse moulding the surface slopes away to form the neck of the cross.
Discussion
Part of the narrow face of a cross-shaft. The density of the interlace and its closed circuit indicate its Anglo-Scandinavian character. The drilled hole-points are a feature of the Allertonshire workshop (Chap. VI, pp. 44–7), which used the device to lay out a regular grid.
Date
Mid ninth to mid tenth century
References
?Speight 1897, 381; Collingwood 1907, 272, 408, fig. n on 409; McCall 1910, 159; Collingwood 1912, 128
Endnotes
[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.)
