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Object type: Part of cross-head
Measurements: H. 31.8 cm (12.5 in); W. 25 cm (9.8 in); D. 9 cm (3.5 in) across arm
Stone type: Sandstone, pale brown, medium to coarse grained, quartz with some feldspar, quartz cemented. Upper Carboniferous, local Millstone Grit Group. [G.L.]
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 541-5
Corpus volume reference: Vol 8 p. 211
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An incomplete cross-head of type A10 or C10.
A (broad): The upper arm, and the surviving portion of the cross-arm on the left, are filled with a fine-stranded interlace, now very worn, probably a basket plait. In the centre of the head is a frontal human face with the eyes and nose shallowly cut but still distinguishable. The head has a close-fitting cap of hair or halo.
B and D (narrow): The sides of the upper arm are plain, the ends of both side arms are missing.
C (broad): The remaining arms again have what looks like a close-packed but fine-stranded interlace, even more worn than on face A. The central feature may also be a head, but is much more worn than on A, although a lock of hair seems likely on the left.
E (top): There is a dowel hole in the top.
A modelled human head in the centre of a cross is also found at Lythe in north Yorkshire, on a cross-head of Anglian form, dated mid-ninth to tenth century, but with a cross shape and a style of interlace also found in Anglo-Scandinavian contexts (Lang 2001, 156, no. 7, ill. 490). There is another at Bromfield, Cumberland (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 81, no. 3, ills. 177–9), on an undoubtedly tenth-century ring-head. See also the discussion of the missing figure on Cawthorne 2 (p. 115, Ill. 139).
