On the sill of the west window, at the west end of the nave under the tower

Probably found with other stones in 1840–41 (see Collingham (St Oswald) 1 and 2). In Haigh (1856–7, pl. 2) and Pettigrew (1864, fig. 4), and as described by Allen (1891), it was cemented to the lower part of Collingham (St Oswald) 2, with Collingham (St Oswald) 5 above. These disparate fragments had been separated before being drawn and described by Collingwood (1915a, 159).

St Oswald

The carving is still crisp and clear on all faces. The cut-away at the top gives a superficial resemblance to an offset for a neck but contradicts the layout of the face, and must therefore relate to the period of nineteenth-century reuse, when no. 5, with a similar cut-away, was attached to the top (see Stephens 1884b, figs. on 122).

A tapering cross-shaft of rectangular section. The angles are square and all faces are edged by flat mouldings. The ornament on all faces is continuous.

A (broad): The face is dominated by an angular medallion scroll, of which two half and one complete medallions survive. The stems are broad and flat. In the half-medallion at the bottom is a strand probably from a tendril. Above in the spandrel to the left, one tendril curls down from the upper stem and ends in a petalled leaf-flower: it links with a flowerless tendril springing from the strand below. In the spandrel on the right, slender tendrils again spring from both upper and lower stems to link in the centre of the spandrel: each terminates in a tri-lobed fruit or leaf-flower. The linked tendril motif dominates the centre of the complete medallion, although the terminations have possibly five petals/leaves. The spandrel above on the left has a single plain spiral tendril; that on the right has a frond-like leaf apparently depending from the stem above. A larger flower or berry bunch fills the lower triangular space of the half-medallion above.

B (narrow): The face is dominated by a heavy-looking continuous step pattern of type 1, with incised outlines and inner incised line, to give an impression of broad flat bands.

C (broad): A large-scale interlace, double-stranded. The lowest motif is incomplete but it produces a glide which feeds into one register of simple pattern F. A second glide above moves to form what looks like a simple pattern E in which, however, both double-strands merge on the left, before continuing into another incomplete knot above.

D (narrow): A meander of type 2, with a single broad strand completely filling the available space.

It is possible, as the geology suggests, that this may be part of the same cross as the arm Collingham 5. Crossing medallion scrolls have a long history in Wharfedale, found also at Otley, Ilkley, Kirkby Wharfe, Guiseley, Addingham and Barwick in Elmet (Chap. V, p. 53). This is also interesting in the light of the distribution evidenced by the 'right-angled crossing' of interlace in cross-heads, and the tendril pattern (see Collingham 5 below and Chap. V, p. 49). The double-stranded, large-scale interlace and the side-filling, heavy step and meander patterns are all features of the period of Scandinavian influence in sculpture, while the medallion scroll, though flattened and stylised, shows the continuing influence of Anglian taste, again nodding to major earlier sculptures such as Otley 1 (see Ills. 561–3). The angular, lattice-like version of the scroll on this shaft is so like the example from Kirkby Wharfe, no. 2 (Ill. 436), a site which also has cross-heads of a similar style and concept to Collingham 5, that the same sculptor or workshop is indicated. See also the discussion of Collingham 5 below.

Late ninth to tenth century

Haigh 1856–7, 512, pl. 2; Pettigrew 1864, 312, pl. 21, fig. 4; Stephens 1866–7, 390, 391, figs. on 391; Stephens 1884b, 121–2, fig. on 122; Allen 1890, 302, 307; Allen 1891, 159, no. 2; Allen 1903, 219, nos. 566, ?567; Collingwood 1912, 128; Collingwood 1915a, 159–60, 264, 268, 270, 271, 274, figs. k–n on 160; Collingwood 1915b, 328; Howorth 1917, I, 91, pl. facing 92; Collingwood 1927, 158, fig. 188k–n; Brown 1937, 146, pl. XL, 1; Kendrick 1941a, 18; Kendrick 1949, 65, fig. 6c; Page 1973, 136, fig. 24; Bailey 1980, 189, pl. 49; Page 1999, 134, fig. 39

[1] The following are general references to the Collingham stones: Browne 1880–4a, lxxiv; Browne 1885c, 157; Allen 1887, 85; Allen 1890, 293; MacMichael 1906, 359–60; Morris 1911, 155; Pevsner 1959, 20, 165–6; Faull 1981, 212, 218; Ryder 1991, 19; Ryder 1993, 17, 147; Cambridge 1995b, 144n, 145.