Formerly in the south aisle upright against the east wall; now in a corner of the vestry

None, first mentioned by Innocent (1910, 93). When Collingwood'saw it, it was fixed against the south wall of the chancel (1915a, 218), but in 1982 Ryder reported that it was lying on the floor at the east end of the south aisle, as it had done 'for the last forty years' (1982, 114).

St John the Baptist

There is some damage to the edges, and see description of face D. The shaft is set up in a modern base but does not stand straight. It leans against the wall and face C is invisible. It is also set up upside down according to its taper and previous descriptions. The angles are rounded.

A (broad): This face is mainly taken up by a long, plain panel with a double incised border, the outer terminating in two inward facing scrolls, criss-crossed by a lattice, within the compartments of which are alternately indentations or incised circles, which as Ryder (1982, 114) noted is rather different from the impression given by Collingwood's drawing (1915a, 219). Beyond the scrolls is the incised border of another panel, incomplete.

B (narrow): Plain, apart from an incised border on either side.

C (broad): Invisible as it now stands, but Ryder (1982, 114) reported it has similar designs to face A.

D (narrow): No trace of an incised border

The nearest parallel to this slab-like piece is the grave-cover from Otley, no. 13 (Ill. 617), although there the scrolls are unembellished. This is also otherwise plain. Borders ending in scrolls but framing decorated faces are found on Levisham 1, a tenth-century shaft in east Yorkshire, on all faces (Lang 1991, 175, ills. 631–4). A similar border appears on the only visible face of another decorated shaft Sinnington 6, and in a cruder version on Kirkbymoorside 2, both also east Yorkshire (ibid., 155–6, 209–10, ills. 521, 809). Lang believed such terminal scrolls were confined to these three Ryedale sites and were possibly a local reflex of the erupting scrolls found on the Newgate shaft from York (ibid., ills. 342–5). Plain though the examples in the West Riding are, it seems that this is a tenth-century fashion, and indicative of Scandinavian taste. The connections with York and with Ryedale sculpture have been noted before, for example at Bilton (pp. 98–9).

Tenth century

Innocent 1910, 93; Morris 1911, 357; Collingwood 1912, 130; Collingwood 1915a, 218–19, 271, 273, fig. on 219; Collingwood 1927, 177, fig. 112; Mee 1941, 257; Pevsner 1959, 366; Ryder 1982, 95, 114, figs. a, b on 114; Sidebottom 1994, 81–2, 85–7, 260, and pls.; Sidebottom 1997, 50

None