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Object type: Fragment of cross-shaft or architectural sculpture [1]
Measurements: H. 65.5 cm (25.8 in); W. 21 cm (8.3 in); D. Built in
Stone type: As Ledsham (All Saints) 1
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 470, 476-7; Fig. 14a
Corpus volume reference: Vol 8 p. 193-4
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Built horizontally into the wall so that only one face is visible. Only about 37.9 cm (14.8 in) of the length is decorated, with the decoration separated from the smoothly dressed plain area by a regular incised line. There is a fine roll moulding edging the decorated section.
A (broad): This is another example of a finely cut plant-scroll, in this case one and a half medallions of a medallion scroll. It is clear that the left-hand edge (the foot as it appears in Ill. 476) represents the start of the design, in which the two strands of the first half-medallion start not with a root but with what appear to be two large, petalled, closed flower-heads, then cross to form the complete medallion, and come together at the top, swelling into plain nodes from which spring two tri-lobed fruit or leaves which cross inside the medallion, and two further strands which cross above to form the start of the next medallion. A back-turned, pointed drop-leaf fills both spandrels.
Inside the medallion, and involved in the stems of the crossing, are two affronted birds, their legs and feet on or behind the strands of plant, their clubbed wing-tips meeting below the crossing of the first medallion, their necks crossing in the centre of the medallion so that their heads face each other, and their beaks pecking at the fruit above. The feathered tails can be clearly seen, both stopping exactly at the incised line on the left, which lends credibility to the idea that this is the start of the pattern.
The disposition of the birds could suggest, though it does not confirm, that this was meant to be seen not as it is now, but upright, so this is less likely than Ledsham 1 to be part of a string-course rather than a shaft. However, it could be a string-course, since it also seems to be innovative in its composition. Because of the wear on the stone part of the original surface detail is lacking, but some surviving details are significant.
There are some oddities in the design of the scroll, particularly that it appears to start with what look like two flower heads, which look in some ways more like detached bird tails, fanned with stylised parallel feathers, like, for example, those of the birds on the lowest register of face C of Croft 1, north Yorkshire (Lang 2001, ill. 152), where the birds are laced within the scroll in a similar manner. It may be that there was some misunderstanding of the model, in what is a highly innovative piece. Two interlocked birds, whether or not in a scroll, are very rare in Northumbrian sculpture. One of only two examples, from Billingham, co. Durham, seems to be rather late, an example of a tenth-to eleventh-century revival of earlier Anglian styles (Cramp 1984, 50, no. 7, pl. 16.76). The most interesting parallel is the cross-shaft from Aberlady, East Lothian. On one broad face of this shaft there are four interlocked birds with crossed necks, involved in interlace, not apparently a plant-scroll (Clapham 1930, pl. 13; Cramp 1984, pl. 265.1432; see Fig. 14b, p. 55, and Ill. 865). The links between the Aberlady bird-mesh and those on the Lindisfarne Gospels Quoniam page (fol. 139r; see Fig. 14c, p. 55), and even more with the cross-carpet page (p. 220) of the Lichfield Gospels, have been remarked (Bruce-Mitford 1960, 255; Henderson 1987, 124). Paired birds within a medallion are less uncommon. They are found on faces A and D of the Cundall/Aldborough shaft (Lang 2001, 94, fig. 14, ills. 160, 182). There is perhaps not enough of the scroll itself to be diagnostic but the abrupt rootless start of the scroll is a feature which continues in West Riding sculpture. The connections are therefore again with Northumbrian and Mercian manuscript styles of the eighth century, and with other sculptures of the same date. The delicate but sharp cutting is also like Croft 1 (Lang 2001, ills. 147–51).
