On the sill of the north window of the chantry chapel

First recorded in October 1886 forming one side of a fourteenth-century aumbry in the Milbanke Chapel at the east end of the north aisle. A photograph in the J. Romilly Allen collection (BL Add. MS 37552, item 535) shows that faces A and D were visible. The shaft was extracted in 1887 by J. P. Pritchett, the architect in charge of the restoration.

Broken, and scabbled on one face, but unworn

The base of a shaft.

A (broad) : A broad rolled edge moulding at each side turns across the base of the face. Within it is a pair of panels each within a narrower roll moulding, the two transverse elements abutting. The upper panel, whose top is lost, contains a bush vine rising from a central inverted palmette form. The central stem is vertical and rolled in section, with a pair of pendant scrolls disposed symmetrically. The upper pair terminate in pointed leaves with flanking circular leaves; a triple leaf form. The lower pair spring diagonally upwards with the same pointed/lobed terminals, and from a ridged node the stem splits, a pendant scroll filling each lower corner with sprays of leaves. At the left the terminal is a spray of four pointed leaves, two of them split and penetrated by the stem, with another shootlet bearing a single pointed leaf adjacent. On the right the scroll is a single berry flanked by a pair of pointed leaves; another single leaf hangs adjacent from a shootlet. At the top, the central stem splits into two berry bunches each grasped by a pair of confronted birds, whose other very large claws float freely on each side of the stem. The birds are dove-like with proud breasts, folded wings and splayed tails, interlaced with the plant shootlets. The head of the left-hand bird is in double outline with a drilled eye; the right-hand bird's head is damaged. The pointed wing has a rolled edge at its base containing small feathers above parallel pinions. The tail springs from a transverse roll moulding into four feathers with a convex tip. In each case the shootlet passes over the tail and under the wing.

Within the lower panel is a group of four profile animals, arranged symmetrically as two pairs; the left-hand animal of each pair is upright, whilst the right-hand beasts are on their backs. The upper pair are winged bipeds with round heads, drilled eyes and open jaws from which issues a long tongue, median-incised with a volute tip. The snout is heavy. The wing is folded and identical with those of the birds above. The legs are extended forwards and interlace with the tails of the companion beast in an 'Anglian lock'. The body tapers sharply into a fleshy scroll with a pointed leaf terminal. This tail interlaces with the attendant reversed beast, whose form and details are identical. Below, in the same disposition, is a pair of canine quadrupeds. Their heads have small pricked ears, a line curving on the jowl and a pendant tongue identical with those of the paired bipeds above. The slender legs are striding. The chest and haunches are modelled and the waist is tapered. The tail is a fleshy strand which, in each case, forms a simple pattern E loop (a Stafford knot) at the base of the panel, before crossing the other animal's neck.

B (narrow) : Only the upper part of this face survives. The edge moulding is double, the inner bead thinner than the outer, and it is rolled. Within the panel is part of a plant-scroll, only one and a half registers surviving. The scrolls issue from a ridged node, somewhat damaged. The strand is deeply cut and rolled. The lower shootlet forms a scroll with a curved pointed leaf terminal, and two others on short stems lying close to it. From the centre of the node a straight stem grows with an expanded oval tip and an ellipse incised within it. The upper shoot grew upwards into another scroll, now largely lost. From this are two pendant, pointed leaves, veined and with volute tips, interlaced with the strand.

C (broad) : The outer edge moulding is broad and rolled, and turns across the base. Within is a thinner roll moulding, serving as a frame for the panel. The panel is filled with a complete tree-scroll of three registers, springing from a central stock with curved sides and medial beading, topped with a ridged node. The stem is vertical with two further ridged nodes from which the paired scrolls grow. At the top a pair of pointed leaves from a shootlet fill the spandrel. The scroll terminates in rosette berry bunches with pointed leaves, sometimes grooved, on shootlets. The lowest right scroll has almost a 'Byzantine blossom'. Each scroll has a distinctive, informal growth within it.

The scroll is inhabited by beasts and birds. In the top left is a rearing quadruped with a canine head, upraised wing and short lifted tail with a volute tip. The wing is of the same form as those of the birds on face A, though the tip is swept to a curving point. The chest and haunches are substantial whilst the legs are slender, the hind-quarters hanging free. This beast bites a leaf in preference to the berries. Its pair on the right is very similar, except that its wing is folded and its legs interlace with the scroll in an 'Anglian lock'. It too bites a leaf.

In the middle register, on the left, the animal is more equine, with a long neck and a tail with a large pointed leaf terminal. It is disposed vertically, with all four legs parallel and hoofed feet against the panel edge. The legs are in an 'Anglian lock' with the scroll. On the right, the quadruped is rearing and adorsed with its companion beyond the stem. Its canine head bites a leaf, the jaws with their own moulded outline, and a small pricked ear, which is grooved. Its tail is erect with a volute tip, and the hind quarters hang loosely with broad haunches and slender hocks. The chest is substantial and the waist nipped.

In the lowest register, in the left-hand scroll a bird swallows the tip of a shootlet. It has a round body, long neck and parrot-like head. Its wing is raised in a point and its splayed tail has parallel feathers. The wing feathers are like those of face A, and the whole bird is covered with small round feathers. The claws are comically huge and they, together with the tail and wing, are in an 'Anglian lock' with the scroll. The right-hand bird is identical, except that its wing is folded and it bites a single berry.

D (narrow) : The edge moulding is that of face B, and turns across the base of the panel. Within is a run of interlace in modelled median-incised strand. The pattern changes, using both symmetrical and asymmetrical loops, and a pattern C pair with lying strands at the sides. The pattern is logical and controlled. The ground, like the other faces, is cut away flat by about 1 cm.

This crisply carved shaft is one of the most accomplished pieces in the area. Its state of preservation suggests that originally it stood indoors. Not a complete monument, it has been trimmed to accommodate the single panel of face C. It is rare in the region for the edge mouldings to be carved so carefully: rolled and of two dimensions. All the carving is well modelled but not in such naturalistic high relief as pieces such as Easby 1 (Ills. 193–212); it is certainly not flat carving, however (contra Wilson 1984, 77). The strict symmetry of the designs works against any classical feel to the sculpture, but much of the ornament derives from early Christian or Late Antique models. The bush vine with confronted birds is an echo of the vine springing from a chalice (note the peculiar base to the plant's stem) with peacocks, a Eucharistic symbol with implications of eternal life. In the immediate aftermath of Alcuin's connections with both York and the Carolingian world, one might expect in Yorkshire a reflection of the contemporary European taste for resurrecting such unique images. Early models abound on sarcophagi and the closure screen in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (Grabar 1966, 274, fig. 316). Bush vines and small tree scrolls are found reasonably frequently in Deira and Mercia, c.AD 800, so at Croft one finds the northern limit of the motif.

The inhabited plant-scroll of face C has stylised creatures unlike the naturalistic ones of earlier pieces like Otley 1 (Collingwood 1915, 225, figs. b and g) or Easby 1 (Ills. 198–200). They are star-shaped, with stretched extensions like legs and wings obeying the logic of regular interlace in conjunction with the scroll; they do not perch but are held in the conventional 'Anglian lock'. These motifs are not direct copies of Italian models, but are developed into pattern-like formality from their organic origins, with Anglian fashions in mind. In this it resembles the interaction of beast and scroll in metalwork like the Witham pins (Wilson 1964, pl. 18; Cramp 1978a, 9). The form of the pointed leaves has occasional parallels in the chair fragment Lastingham 10 (Lang 1991, 172–3, ill. 615, 625) and a cross-arm, York Minster 10 (ibid., 59–60, ill. 38), and further analogues occur in Mercia (Cramp and Lang 1977, no. 3). The relative absence of leaves and the relative size of the creatures prepares the way for the enlarged beast and scroll of pieces like St Leonard's Place 1 in York (Lang 1991, 109–10, ill. 369), of the early ninth century. The leaping postures of some of the animals show the same trend. There is considerable surface detail added to the beasts, especially those with wings, which, coupled with the delicacy of the cutting, might suggest that this shaft was not originally coated with gesso and pigment. The changing patterns of the interlace of face B are typical of pre-Viking Age designs in Yorkshire (G. Adcock, pers. comm.).

Late eighth to early ninth century

(—) 1885–6, 310; (—) 1887–8a, 263; (—) 1887–8b, 277–8; Brock 1888, 178, 179, 409; Pritchett 1888, 242–3, figs. 2, 3; Browne 1888–91, 17–18; Allen 1889, 158, fig. 10; Bulmer 1890, 415; Hodges 1894, 194, 195; (—) 1899–1900a, 52, pl.; Morris, J. 1904, 133, 420; Collingwood 1906–7, 117, fig. 7; Collingwood 1907, 269, 283, 284, 286, 290, 291, 306, figs. a–d on 307; Collingwood 1912, 111, 123, figs. a–d on 115, pl. IV; Prior and Gardner 1912, 118; Collingwood 1913b, 295; Page, W. 1914, 171; Collingwood 1915, 262, 268, 272, 274, 275, 277; Collingwood 1916–18, 37–8, fig. 6; Parker and Collingwood 1917, 107, fig. 9; Smith 1923–4, 237, fig. 3; Brøndsted 1924, 38–9, 81, 224, fig. 21; Edwards 1924, 40, fig. facing 39; Peers 1926, 50; Collingwood 1927a, 47, fig. 59, 109–10; Clapham 1930, 63, pl. 13a; Morris, J. 1931, 134; Collingwood 1932, 48, 50; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 195, 246; (—) 1933–4, 321; Kendrick 1938, 145, 149–50, 197, pl. LXI; Henry 1940, 82, pl. 28c; Dauncey 1941, 115, 116; Mee 1941, 67, pl. facing 112; Fyson 1951–6, 243, fig. on 244; Stone 1955, 22–3, pl. 10b; Fyson 1957, 71, fig. 15; Cramp 1959–60, 10; Bruce-Mitford 1960, 254; Bakka 1963, 38; Wilson, D. 1964, 14; Pevsner 1966, 132, pl. 6a; Cramp 1967, 28–9, no. 53, pl.; Adcock 1974, 103, 116n, pl. 19a; Morris, C. 1976a, 142; Cramp and Lang 1977, no. 3, pls.; Cramp 1978a, 9, fig. 1.1 (d, e); Morris, C. 1978, 44, 47; Bailey 1980, 206, 265; Kerr and Kerr 1982, 36 and ill.; Henderson, I. 1983, 250, 252, 255, fig. 109c; Cramp 1984, 16, 18, 77; Wilson, D. 1984, 77, ill. 79; Jewell 1986, 101; Neuman de Vegvar 1987, 235, ill. on 233; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 67, 86, 135; Lang 1988a, 16, 23, 56; Hatcher 1990, 63; Lang 1990a, 9, 11; Lang 1991, 22, 54, 110; Webster and Backhouse 1991, 153, fig. 115; Cramp 1992, 1, 226; Harbison 1992, I, 324, III, fig. 991; Hicks 1993, 122–3, fig. 3.6; Everson and Stocker 1999, 24, 251; Youngs 1999, 288, fig. 23.6; Garrison et al. 2001, 24, 31–2, cat. 52, ill. on 12

[1] The following are general references to the Croft stones: Morris, J. 1931, 417; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 246; (—) 1933–4, 321; Cambridge 1984, 69.

[2] The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to no. 1: BL Add. MS 37552 no. XIV, items 530–7 (Romilly Allen collection).