In the church of St John the Baptist, Royston, at the east end near the high altar

A carved stone with apparently pre-Conquest ornament was found sunk into the ground bordering the drive at Chantry House in November 1983, during a survey of older buildings of the village and potential archaeological sites by M. Parker and P. F. Ryder, of the South Yorkshire County Archaeological Service. As an amateur sculptor had occupied the house previously, and the stone was locally believed to be his work, he was contacted and confirmed that the stone had been in the garden when he came to the house and that it was at one time known as the 'Fertility Stone'. The finders speculated that it might have been brought to the house by a previous, nineteenth-century occupant who had been a parish grave-digger. The stone was dug up and proved to be pre-Conquest (Ryder 1986, 31).

Damaged and incomplete, with considerable wear on the broad faces. The narrow faces are in quite good condition.

A fragment of a shaft of rectangular section, with cable-moulded angles. The strands are broad and humped but not deeply cut.

A (broad): Very battered and worn, but seems to show (i) the base of an interlace knot, possibly from the lower arm of the cross-head (the terminals on the sides suggest that this is the top of the shaft); and (ii) a scene with three figures, the central figure frontal and the outer two facing inwards. The figure on the right is devoid of any recognisable features; that on the left could be construed as having an animal-like head with open jaws enclosing the left side of the head of the central figure. It is possible, however, that this is a human figure with head thrown back and arm upraised towards the central figure. The central figure has no surviving identifiable features. It seems to stand on a bulky object, but this could be part of a pattern or scene in a panel below.

B (narrow): A double-stranded twist of which one and a half elements and the upper bar terminal survive. The area above could be part of the side of the lower arm of the head, but is too damaged for certainty.

C (broad): The upper part has been reworked, leaving pock-like tool marks in a reuse of the stone. In the remainder of the carved face, fleshy strands pass through or hook round what looks like a large loose ring. One strand ends in a clubbed tip.

D (narrow): A double-stranded twist as on face B, again ending at the top in a bar terminal.

There are some similarities here with stones from Frickley, about eight miles south-east of Royston, although none of the surviving Frickley pieces has figural ornament. It is most like Frickley 2 (Ills. 264–8), with a large-scale interlace-related pattern on one face and double-stranded twists on the narrow sides, although the Royston twist is a simpler form. The deployment of large-scale patterns is however very similar to the whole group at Frickley. The muddled twist or interlace on face C and its possible loose ring all suggest a late date.

The presence of the figural scene is interesting, in showing the continuing strength of the Anglian tradition of the panelled and figured cross, but it is also frustrating because it is too damaged to be read with confidence. There are a number of scenes involving three figures (see Chap. VI, pp. 59–60, 61), in some of which the outer figures turn in to face the centre, and all are possible candidates: scenes of Christ blessing as on the Nunburnholme cross, east Yorkshire, sometimes also interpreted as a form of Crucifixion scene (Bailey 1980, 156–7; Lang 1991, 193; and see also Barwick in Elmet 2, p. 94); the Traditio Legis found on some Irish crosses but also on the Sandbach cross in Cheshire (Hawkes 2002a, 57–62, fig. 2.12); the Second Mocking of Christ (see the discussion of Bilton in Ainsty 3 and Bramham 1, pp. 99, 106); and (less possibly perhaps) the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace (see the discussion of Bilton 3), to name but four. The difficulty of interpreting crudely-carved and damaged figural scenes is demonstrable in the examples cited from Barwick and Bilton. The animal head detected by its discoverers, which led them to identify it as a 'Temptation of St Anthony' as on some Irish crosses, is unfortunately by no means certain.

Probably early to mid tenth century

Ryder 1986, 31–3, fig. 1; Ryder and Hippisley-Cox 1986, 27; Butler 1992, 204

None