At the west end of the nave, under the tower

The three shafts now in the church were first noted by Camden who visited Ilkley in 1592 and saw broken pillars, which he believed to be Roman, lying in different parts of the churchyard (Camden 1607, 567–8). Haigh said that at the time of his visit in 1838 no. 1 was standing in the churchyard while nos. 2 and 3 had been used as stile and gate posts on the west and south sides of the churchyard (Haigh 1856–7, 532). The Rev. John Snowden, vicar between 1842–78, placed the shafts on the south side of the churchyard (Ill. 333), possibly in 1861 during a restoration of the church (Collyer and Horsfall Turner 1885, 41), although Haigh in 1857 had already noted that they had been placed together. The cross-head (no. 8) was reconstructed from two original pieces in 1914 and placed on the tallest shaft (Ill. 334). In 1982 the condition of all the crosses was causing considerable concern, and the West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council organised their transfer to the present display area in 1983, as well as a programme of conservation and cleaning to remove the layer of black sulphate laid down on the surfaces by atmospheric pollution (Faull 1986b, 37–40).

All Saints

The shaft could be complete, apart from its head, as mouldings are present at top and bottom on all faces. It is weathered and worn but undamaged.

A tapering cross-shaft, rectangular at the foot, but approaching a square in section at the top. The mouldings are very damaged, but the edge mouldings were probably rounded on all faces while the panel dividers appear flat. The edge mouldings are wider at the foot than at the top, and there are traces of worn baluster ornament on the lower part of the angle between faces A and B.

A (broad): This face is divided roughly equally into four panels. (i) The upper panel has a frontal figure. His robe, expressed in stylised but graceful folds, indicates a seated figure. His plain nimbus is slightly dished. Beneath it the slight remains of modelling suggest a hairstyle of stiff curls framing the top of the head. The features are now indistinct except for the eyes. His right hand appears to be raised in blessing, the left is indistinct but probably holds the stem of the sceptre or palm which rises above his left shoulder and follows the curve of the left side of his head and halo. (ii) A panel with two confronted beasts, snout to snout, with domed heads and drilled eyes. They have sinuous bodies whose lower limbs or tails entwine to form a Stafford Knot (simple pattern E), the ends of which curve around the upper bodies and disappear behind their backs; the ends of the tails or ear lappets sprout above each head. (iii) The next panel has a single beast facing left and one foreleg raised before its beaked face. The beast's other foreleg extends into the lower right corner and ends in a clawed foot. Its tail loops around this leg and terminates in the lower left corner in a pointed leaf-shape. Collingwood (1915a, 186, fig. a) drew it with a small wing above its back, but this looks like the end of another extension which crosses the animal's body apparently from behind its back. This probably came from the ear lappet which is still visible, which probably also connects with the detached-looking curl in the top right corner. (iv) The lowest panel also has a single animal, a quadruped prancing right but with a backward -turned head with extended, almost beak-like, jaws on a long slender neck. One foreleg with a delicate cloven foot is raised to the top right-hand corner, the other is lowered and is partly covered by one hind leg which extends into the corresponding corner at the foot. The other hind leg reaches into the lower left corner. The creature's tail passes between its hind legs, then behind its body and in front of its neck, to terminate beside its hoof at the top right. A rather lumpen shape on its back behind the neck is possible a wing, though it is less wing-like than in Collingwood's drawing.

B (narrow): This face has an extremely stylised spiral scroll. It starts at the foot with two opposed tight spirals with no trace of a plant form. A thin stem stands on the upper spiral: this branches into two thin, weak-looking, meandering off-shoots which turn back towards the base spirals before rising again. That on the right peters out against the side moulding, possibly with a leaf; that on the left develops into the first of five spiral volutes of a more conventional scroll, each terminating at the centre of the spiral in a rounded petalled flower or berry bunch. The first two spandrels sprout tri-lobed leaf forms, the next two appear to have drop leaves or buds. Above the fifth volute, standing on it rather than developing from it, two strands rise to form two registers of a medallion scroll, with pointed drop leaves in the spandrels, and, internally, curling crossing tendrils which in the upper register terminate in flowers. Above the second medallion the stems cross and end in curling tips. The upper moulding of the face forms a double curve above these tips. There is no trace of a moulding at the foot.

C (broad): This face like A is divided into four complete panels. Although now more worn than in early drawings or photographs, the four Evangelists as half-or three-quarter length human figures with symbolic heads are still recognisable. (i) The upper panel has a frontal nimbed figure with both hands raised in front of it, presumably holding a book. Its robes fall in stylised concentric curves. The beaked head of the eagle of St John, turned to the right, is still recognisable in front of the halo. (ii) The next panel is extremely worn but the figure is nimbed and is three-quarter turned to the right. The head with dished halo is turned right and an ear and snout-like jaws suggest the bull of St Luke. His draped right arm holds a book against his breast; the left is not visible, perhaps covered by stylised folds on the right-hand side of the panel. (iii) Below this is a half-length frontal figure. The drapery around neck and shoulders and over the arms, which though covered both clearly hold up the book in front, is still quite clear, as is the dished halo. The head is turned right, and is rounder and larger than in the panel above, with animal-like jaws and lolling tongue: this must be the lion of St Mark. (iv) The lowest panel is the best preserved. The figure here has a dished halo, within which is a frontal human face with drilled eyes and small slit mouth. His dress has an under-tunic, visible at the neck, his robe drapes in folds around his shoulders and over his right arm, and his right hand upholding his book is still visible: St Matthew represented by a man.

D (narrow): The continuous scroll on this face starts differently from that on B. At the foot is a contorted interlaced animal, very stylised, with its down-turned head, which has a beaked jaw, drilled eyes and an ear lappet, in the top left. Its long narrow body twists once and terminates in a tail with a clubbed or leaf-shaped tip in the bottom left corner. The feet of its forelegs rest against the right-hand border of the face. Its distorted hindleg curves around the left of its body, passes under its tail, and terminates in a huge fringed foot at the right lower corner. Its body echoes the spiraliform scroll above, and indeed it is the animal's ear lappet which develops into that scroll. From this point, the scroll follows a similar course to that on face B, with five volutes of a spiral scroll and two of a medallion scroll. The volutes start lower, and are correspondingly larger to fit the tapering shaft, and the first two spandrels have attached triquetra knots instead of plant forms.

Different though it is in style, Ilkley 1 yet owes much to Otley 1 and 2 (Ills. 552–63, 568–71): the two sites are close, only about five miles apart on the river Wharfe, and were both part of the Otley estate of the Archbishop of York (Chap. II, pp. 15, 19) . Clear points of comparison are the use of medallion scrolls, here confined to the top of the narrow faces, and the panelled format on the broad faces. Face C has symbols of the four Evangelists, with St Matthew at the foot. The fantastic animals, with one paired animal panel, on face A, have a relationship with the wyverns on Otley 2, though here they are wispier and always involved in interlace. The detached curl on Aiii, however, is reminiscent of the plant fragments on Otley 2. The dished halos of the figures, though shallow in comparison with those on Otley 1, are clearly following in the same tradition. The differences are in style, with Ilkley 1 heavier and flatter, with pattern-like stylisation involved in every fold of drapery: this style, with its drilled eyes and flat surfaces, would have been dependent for its effects on paint and probably inlays of paste or metal. Nevertheless this cross too had its impact on contemporary and later monuments: its heavy spiral scroll with its formal flower at the centre is widely found in west Yorkshire; and the interest in varying pattern types, without panel breaks and indeed without breaks, from top to bottom of a shaft, is also an important feature of work in the area.

For the development of Evangelist symbols with beast heads, see Chap. VI, pp. 63–4. Although expressed differently this too may relate to Otley 1. The figure at the top of face A, though stylised, is clearly seated, and is probably a seated frontal representation of Christ in Majesty. This may show the influence of pillars like Masham and Dewsbury 1–3, with scenes of Christ as teacher, or enthroned as ruler of the world, and accompanied by apostles (see Dewsbury 1–3, p. 129).

Mid to late ninth century

Haigh 1856–7, 532; Pettigrew 1864, 308, 310, 311–12, pl. 21, fig. 1; Whitaker 1878, 283–5, fig. on 284; Hatton and Fox 1880, 22, pl. facing 24; Browne 1880–4b, cxii; Morant 1881, 42–3, fig. on 43; Browne 1883, 186; Allen 1884a, 161–3, 171, fig. facing 160; Allen 1885, 348; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Browne 1885c, 157, 158, pl. VIII; Collyer and Horsfall Turner 1885, 40–1, fig. on 41, fig. facing 49; Allen 1887, 268n; Allen 1890, 295, 308, 309; Allen 1891, 165–6, no. 1; Glynne 1898, 346; Speight 1900, 197–9, pl. on 200; Morris 1911, 46, 277; Collingwood 1912, 111, 129; Collingwood 1915a, 185, 188–90, 272, 276, 290, 295, figs. a–d on 186–7; Collingwood 1916–18, 46, fig. 25; Brøndsted 1924, 56–8, 64, figs. 45, 50, 59; Collingwood 1927, 48, 49–50, 87, fig. 63; Collingwood 1929, 22; Clapham 1930, 70, fig. 17; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 196; Gardner 1935, 45; (–––) 1936, 99; Kendrick 1938, 199–201, 202, pls. LXXXIX.1, LXXXIX.5; Dauncey 1941, 117, fig. 18; Mee 1941, 199, pl. facing 80; Gardner 1951, 38; Hodgkin 1952, II, 440, fig. 57; Fisher 1959, pl. 29b; Pevsner 1959, 277; Taylor, H. M. 1968a, 330; Cramp 1978a, 9, 10; Cramp 1978b, 126; Bailey 1980, 189–90; Cramp 1984, 88, 95; Faull 1986b, 31, 33, 34, 37–40, pls. IX, X; Wood, I. 1987, 35, 36; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 16, 49, 91, 152; Lang 1990a, 11; Lang 1991, 35, 39, 55, 72; Cramp 1992, 226, 228, 250; Lang 1993, 266; Marshall 1996, n.p.; Farr 1999, 385, pl. 14.3; Adcock 2002, I, 99, 104–5, 109n, fig. 7giv, III, appendix pl. 7a–b; Hawkes 2003b, 365; Hawkes 2006a, 107

[1] The following are general references to the Ilkley stones: Camden 1607, 567–8; Gough 1789, III, 239; Whitaker 1812, 217; Hatton and Fox 1880, 12; Browne 1880–4a, lxxiv; (–––) 1882a, 384; Cobley 1882, 127–8; Allen 1883, 53–6; Allen 1884, 158–61; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Browne 1885c, 157; Allen 1889, 12, 158, 226, 227; Allen 1890, 293, 295; Irvine 1894, 328–9; Bogg 1904, fig. on 31; MacMichael 1906, 362; Collingwood 1915b, 328, 331; Browne 1916, 50; Collingwood 1932, 51, 53; Brown 1937, 213; Pevsner 1959, 20, 277; Taylor, H. M., 1968a, 330; Faull 1981, 218, 219; Faull 1986b, 29, 31, 37–40, pl. IX; Ryder 1991, 30; Ryder 1993, 160; Cambridge 1995b, 146–7; Hadley 2000a, 237, 238; Hawkes 2003a, 81–2; Butler 2006, 93.