Volume 6: Northern Yorkshire
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Current Display: Whitby 54 (abbey), Yorkshire North Riding
Overview
Object type: Fragment of baluster shaft [1]
Measurements: H. 27 cm (10.6 in) W. 19 > 15 cm (7.5 > 5.9 in) D. 13 cm (5.1 in)
Stone type: Cut in coarse-grained, ferruginous, feldspathic, well sorted sandstone. Only weathered surfaces were available for examination so the light yellowish-brown to brownish-yellow colour (10YR 6/4–6/6) may not be a true representation. Stone provenance probably as Whitby 1 (abbey, St Peter and St Hilda)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 1086–7
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 265
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Present Location
English Heritage North Region store, Helmsley (EH 81430702)
Evidence for Discovery
See Whitby 1 (abbey, St Peter and St Hilda). Probably the 'part of moulded shaft', found 3 April 1924, on the north side of the chancel opposite the north-west angle (Whitby finds register, no. 499), together with other architectural fragments (see Table 4).
Church Dedication
St Peter and St Hilda
Present Condition
Broken in half down the section; fairly crisp
Description
One half of a tapering baluster shaft, originally slightly ovate in section. A broad humped encircling band in the middle is median-incised. Above and below the band the surface of the baluster splays outward.
Discussion
This baluster is unlike no. 53 in that it is hand-cut rather than lathe-turned. It is difficult to reconstruct its original shape, but it is probably for another purpose and could be later.
R.C.
Date
Eighth century
References
Peers and Radford 1943, 33
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.
