The Corpus: Burnsall 11a

Volume 8: Western Yorkshire

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Current Display: Burnsall 11a–b, West Riding of Yorkshire

Overview

Object type: Hogback, in two joining pieces [1]

Measurements: L. 137 cm (54 in); W. (centre) 23.8 cm (9.3 in); H. (crown) 52 cm (20.5 in); (ends) 48.3 and 41.9 cm (19 and 16.5 in)

Stone type: Sandstone, pale brown (pink stain in places), coarse to very coarse grained, quartz with feldspar, slightly micaceous, kaolinite patches, occasional dark ferruginous speckling. Carboniferous (Millstone Grit Group). [G.L]

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 127-31

Corpus volume reference: Vol 8 p. 113

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Present Location

As Burnsall 1a–d

Evidence for Discovery

See Burnsall 8. It was kept in the Craven Museum, Skipton until the setting up of the permanent display in the church in 2004.

Church Dedication

St Wilfrid

Present Condition

In two pieces, but otherwise in fairly good condition

Description

A hogback with end-beasts, roof ridge, tegulated roof and plain sides (type f).

A (long): Below the ridge are three rows of type 2 tegulation. The end-beasts are stylised and not fully three-dimensional, but they are muzzled. That on the left has an incised circular eye and a prominent ear, that on the right an eye (see face C). Its narrow foreleg is faintly present below the lower jaw, on which Lang (1984, 124) saw beard-like appendages, with no trace of a paw.

B (end): This end has been cut back, perhaps for some reuse. However, both ends are plain.

C (long): As face A, though more worn, with the more complete head on the right.

D (end): Plain

Discussion

Hogbacks have strong Hiberno-Norse connections and seem to have originated in northern Yorkshire (see Chap. IV, p. 36), with major centres at Brompton and Lythe, both north Yorkshire (Lang 2001, 73–9, 159–66), and Sockburn, co. Durham, where there is a good parallel to the present example in Sockburn 20 (Cramp 1984, 142–3, pl. 145.765–6). It is unusual for the ear to lie at the side of the stone rather than at the top (Lang 1967, 53–3). All the hogbacks from this site are of Lang's 'vestigial' type (1984, 99): see discussion of Burnsall (St Wilfrid) 12.

Date

First half of the tenth century

References

Stavert 1913, 11–12; Collingwood 1915a, 151, 284, fig. on 152; Collingwood 1927, 169, fig. 206; Wall 1930, 51; Mee 1941, 91; Walton 1954, 72, figs. 3c, 4d; Pevsner 1959, 152; Lang 1967, 52–3, 271, 280, fig. 14, pl. X; Bailey 1981, 89, cat. F5; Lang 1984, 99, 124, no. 1, pl. on 125; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 49; Coatsworth 2005, 15, no. 10, fig. on 15

Endnotes

[1] The following are general references to the Burnsall stones: Whitaker 1878, 504; Browne 1880–4a, lxxiv; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Browne 1885c, 157; Browne 1885–6, 124; Allen 1889, 230; Allen 1890, 293, 294; Allen 1891, 158; MacMichael 1906, 359; Morris 1911, 143; Collingwood 1915b, 334; Browne 1916, 50; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 218; Mee 1941, 91; Pevsner 1959, 152; Lang 1984, 88.