Volume 6: Northern Yorkshire
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Current Display: Whitby 38 (abbey), Yorkshire North Riding
Overview
Object type: Part of grave-cover
Measurements: L. 32 cm (12.5 in) W. 56 cm (22 in) D. 14.5 > 11.5 cm (5.7 > 4.5 in)
Stone type: Coarse feldspathic, micaceous sandstone, poorly sorted with sub-angular grains. Very pale brown (10YR 7/3). Bedding sub-parallel to the main cross faces with dark ferruginous layers (brownish yellow, 10YR 6/6). Stone provenance probably as Whitby 1 (abbey, St Peter and St Hilda)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 1043–5
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 255
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Present Location
English Heritage North Region store, Helmsley (EH 88074117)
Evidence for Discovery
See Whitby 1 (abbey, St Peter and St Hilda). Possibly the 'portion of Saxon coffin slab', found 16 December 1924, in section 4, low level (Whitby finds register, no. 695). Section 4 was adjacent to the north wall of the abbey nave, at the west end (Fig. 19).
Church Dedication
St Peter and St Hilda
Present Condition
Weathered and broken
Description
Plain slab with slightly convex surface and the upper and part of the horizontal arms of a cross, type B9 in high relief.
Discussion
The cross type is typical of the free-standing cross-heads, nos. 1 and 28 (Ills. 897, 1003), etc. Although the lack of edge mouldings might indicate a later date when recumbent slabs with long-stemmed crosses in relief became common, it is not easy to date a type of cover which has a long history on the Continent. In Northumbria this might be compared with Hexham 16 and 17 (Cramp 1984, pl. 181, 970–1), and Dinsdale 11 (ibid., pl. 150, 786).
R.C.
Date
Eighth to ninth century(?)
References
Unpublished
Endnotes
[1] The following are general references to the Whitby stones: Hood 1927, 38, 45, 49; Kendall 1932, 9–10, 26–7, 28; Peers and Radford 1943, 33–40; Clapham 1952, 11; Wilson, D. 1964, 9; Cramp 1965b, 4; Fellows-Jensen 1972, 218; Cramp 1976a, 228; Cramp 1976b, 455–7; Rahtz 1976, 460; Cramp 1978a, 7; Bailey 1980, 81, 82; Okasha 1983, 118; Cramp 1984, 9, 79, 109, 180, 222; Higgitt 1986b, 130–1, 134, 148; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 55, 56, 85, 154; Cramp 1989, 223; Lang 1989a, 67; Lang 1990a, 2–3; Higgitt 1991, 45; Lang 1991, 24, 109, 138, 139; Cramp 1992, 8, 24, 107, 224, 252; Okasha 1992, 84; Cramp 1993, 68–9, 71; Fellows-Jensen 1995, 177; Higgitt 1995, 229–36; Rahtz 1995, 7–8; Bailey 1996a, 50–1, 111; Hawkes 1999b, 403, 410–16; Karkov 1999, 133–4; Stocker 2000, 200; Stopford 2000, 102, 104.
