Dewsbury 1 is in the Paulinus Pilgrimage Chapel; Dewsbury 2 and 3 are in the display area at the west end of the nave.

Among the stones which in the early nineteenth century were in the vicarage garden, left there after alterations to the church in 1765–7 (Hunter 1834, 149–68; Fowler 1870, 221–2). These and several other stones were first published and figured by Whitaker (1816, I, 301), who noted that they were found when the outwalls of the church 'having given way were pulled down', and that the stones were brought to light in this partial demolition.

All Saints

Three broken fragments from a round-shafted monument, all of which have also sustained some damage, the undamaged carving however in quite good condition. Each fragment represents a section cut from the round of the shaft, so each is carved on only one face.

Sidebottom (1994, 87–8) did not believe that these could be parts of the same shaft, based on estimates of the curvature of each piece, and instead suggested they were architectural pieces. This seems dubious, however, as each block was separately shaped for reuse. Dewsbury 1, 2 and 3 clearly go together, most probably as parts of a round-shaft with registers of figures, very close in concept and design to that from Masham, north Yorkshire (Lang 2001, 168–71, ills. 597–631). The curve is most obvious on Dewsbury 2 and 3. Although the background is cut back deeply around the figures, they themselves have little surface modelling so the effect is curiously flat. The background is dressed flat.

Dewsbury 1 (Ills. 190–3). (i) This has a heavy border across the top, with the inscription (see below) above a seated frontal figure of Christ blessing. (ii) He has a dished halo with a fine rolled edge, long hair in which long narrow waves are indicated, and a beard more obvious in a side than a frontal view. His eyes are drilled, and were probably filled with some other material originally, and his nose has been damaged. He blesses with his enlarged right hand, held palm open in front of him, while in his left hand he carries a scroll. His drapery falls in stylised folds over his left shoulder, under his right arm and over his knees, which are incised roundels. His feet are just visible beneath his robe. There are the remains of a second nimbed figure on the right of the fragment, very badly damaged.

Inscription The inscription (Okasha 1971, no. 31) is cut into a raised band running across the surviving sculpted face of the stone above the figure (Ills. 190–1). The letters are incised neatly and boldly and are between 3.5 and 4 cm high. The inscription reads:

The text is an abbreviated form of [†] IE(SV)S CHR(IST)VS. As was customary the abbreviated nomina sacra were used for the Latin names of Jesus Christ. Except for the Latin termination in –s or –us, the letters are versions of the Greek letters iota, eta and chi, rho. A small gap separates the two names. The vertical preceding the names was probably part of a cross, although there is now no clear trace of a horizontal. A mid-line point follows the second name. While letters could be lost at either end of the inscription, it is probable that the text is complete as it stands.
 The lettering of this short text consists of capitals. The Greek characters are assimilated to letters of the Roman alphabet. Capital I, H and X, all in their 'Roman' capital forms, are used for iota, eta and chi. The rho is somewhat worn, but appears to have taken the form of a capital P in which the bow curled out to the right at the bottom of the bowl rather than continuing towards the stem. It also has an odd serif-like stroke projecting to the right from the base of the vertical, which may be the result of damage. This letter seems to have been a version of a form of P found in Insular display script in Insular decorative capitals (Higgitt 1994, 229, fig. 2). It is also used for rho in a number of manuscripts (Book of Durrow, fol. 86r; Lindisfarne Gospels, fols. 27r, 95r; Book of Kells, fols. 8r, 130r — Alexander 1978, ills. 18, 39, 46, 247; Meehan 1994, ill. 8). Collingwood (1915a, 162) suggested that the letter should be taken as R, but, although the letter is also formally similar to a very open form of capital R seen, for example, on a cross-head from St Mary Bishophill Junior in York (Okasha 1971, pl. 148; Lang 1991, 86, no. 5, ill. 234), R is very unlikely to have been intended, since a P was the standard way to represent rho in Latin manuscripts and inscriptions. The V is the 'Roman' capital embellished, apparently deliberately, with a dot in the mouth of the letter. S, in both cases, is the angular, 'reversed Z' form of the capital. There is no sign of abbreviation bars over the nomina sacra but they may have been lost in damage to the upper edge of the stone. The letters seem to have been cut without pronounced serifing.

Dewsbury 2 (Ills. 194–5). The second fragment has the same deeply undercut heavy border as Dewsbury 1, but in this case there survives a portion of the shaft above. (i) This shows a heavy cable moulding from near the left edge at the top, curving down to rest on the top of the heavy horizontal border. Collingwood first described this as a foot and drapery, part of a tier of figures above (1915a, 163), but he later recognised it as the cabled edge of a heavy swag, a major part of his evidence that the round shaft tapered into a square shaft above (1927, 7). There seems to be a carved element to the left of the swag, probably a leaf. The two figures represented below are very worn as well as damaged, but they are clearly frontal and standing. The one on the right carries a scroll in his right hand and some of his stylised drapery is visible. His eyes are drilled and a line over his forehead perhaps indicates his hairstyle.

Dewsbury 3 (Ills. 196–7). The third fragment shows another part of the same tier, this time with the lower parts of three frontal figures standing on arches. The first figure on the left is shorn of all detail, but the feet and formal folds of the drapery of the other two are still quite clear. They are wearing draped garments which fall in folds over full-length robes with central folds, The central figure has his right hand held in front of him, perhaps to carry a scroll. Parts of two arches edged with roll mouldings survive below. They spring from a capital with three steps and there is a bud-like element in the spandrel of the arches, on which one foot of the central figure in the upper register rests. Below there are the remains of human heads, clearly a pair beneath each arch, although no distinguishing detail is visible, apart from the drilled eyes and part of the hair of one of them.

These pieces can be reasonably reconstructed to form parts of the upper register of a columnar shaft supporting a square shaft above. The programme appears to be the same, or very similar, to that at the top of the round shaft at Masham, north Yorkshire (Lang 2001, 168–71, no. 1, ills. 597–631). The layout would in fact have been remarkably similar, with paired apostles under arcades, suggesting that the complete register would have had seven arched panels in all. Hawkes (1989, I, 91–5) discussed the iconography of this theme very fully in relation to Masham. She saw this as a general scene of the authority of Christ, a conflation of two earlier models: one a teaching scene with a seated Christ surrounded by the apostles, shown without attributes; the other the scene in which a standing Christ, before his Ascension, sends out the apostles to spread the Word to all nations. In this scene, a standing Christ is flanked by standing apostles, six on each side, identified by their attributes, or at least carrying objects such as books, crowns and palms, and led by Sts Peter and Paul.

Schiller (1986, 202–10, 216–22) firmly related both scenes to the Risen Christ, and analysed them somewhat differently. The scene of the Risen Christ as the Teacher, in this analysis, typically has seated apostles, usually disposed around Christ, except on monuments with a strongly horizontal layout, such as on the sides of sarcophagi, where they can appear seated symmetrically six on either side of the seated Christ. In this situation, they could be shown in relief in front of a townscape or pillared portico, or indeed paired between arches (Schiller 1986, pls. 615–18). The other scene, the Mission to the Apostles, Schiller identified as an extended version of the Traditio Legis in which Christ gives the Law, in the Western version usually to St Peter, witnessed by St Paul. The basic three-figure group appears in a mosaic of c. 350 in the apse of S. Costanza in Rome (ibid., pl. 577). It could however appear with other witnessing apostles, usually either two or the full twelve. For example, on a sarcophagus from Arles, c. 400, Christ stands in front of a pillared portico while two pairs of apostles, including the central Peter and Paul, face him, each pair in an arched niche on either side (ibid., pl. 580). For other examples with twelve apostles, of fourth- to fifth-century date, see Schiller 1986, pls. 582–3. There are obvious similarities between the scenes, which could be distinguished (apart from the difference between the all-seated and all-standing versions) only by the gestures of the central figure, what he is carrying, and the gestures and objects carried by the flanking figures of Sts Peter and Paul. This can be clearly seen on one sarcophagus of the fourth century which has an example of both scenes, on opposite sides (ibid., pls. 583, 616). In the Teaching scene, a seated Christ holds a book and holds his right hand in a gesture of blessing; in the Mission or Traditio Legis scene, he stands, his right arm raised out from his side and above the head of Paul, while in his left he holds a scroll, the other end of which is held by Peter who has a staff cross, his most usual attribute for this scene, over his shoulder. The flanking apostles stand or sit according to the strict formula, but all carry crowns or scrolls, and are distinguished by a variety of hairstyles and facial hair. However, examples of both types can be found in which Christ is seated while the accompanying apostles stand, for example in a fifth- to sixth-century Traditio Legis of Schiller's Ravenna type, in which the Law is given to St Paul, and St Peter with his shouldered cross is one of the witnesses (ibid., pl. 585). For examples of a seated teacher with standing apostles, see Schiller 1986, pls. 620, 621, 624. A mid-sixth-century mosaic above the apse from Pore (ibid., pl. 635) shows Christ as ruler of the world seated on a globe between standing apostles carrying crowns, books and scrolls, which seems to draw on both types of image. This has a different purpose, however, showing Christ not only risen, but ascended and glorified: He who was, and is, and is to come.

The headless figures at Masham are too worn for it to be shown conclusively that they were without attributes, but it is clear that of the six pairs of flanking figures, three on the right of the central, seated figure have their feet turned left to him, while the feet of the three on his left point right (Lang 2001, 169, ills. 601–8). It is very valuable information, therefore, that the enthroned Christ at Dewsbury blesses with his right hand and holds a rolled-up scroll in his left, and that one of the four surviving apostles also carries a scroll. The others may have carried objects, but not enough survives for confirmation. The self-contained gestures of Christ, who is not handing anything or acknowledging anyone to either side, suggests that this is not a Traditio Legis or Mission scene (or a conflation including this scene), but is either Christ as teacher, or Christ enthroned as ruler of the world, attended by apostles.

Any of these variants, as Hawkes noted (1989, I, 93–4), is difficult to find in continental art after the sixth century, but reflections of several of them can be attested in either documentary or surviving sculptured sources in pre-Viking England from the late seventh century, showing that they had arrived and continued to be influential there. We know, for example, that a depiction of Mary the Mother of God with the twelve apostles was brought from Rome to Wearmouth by Benedict Biscop in the late seventh century (Historia Abbatum: Bede 1896, 369–70, ch. 6). The coffin reliquary of St Cuthbert, also of the late seventh century, is decorated on one of its sides with the twelve apostles led by Peter and Paul, named and with attributes, such as the keys of Peter and the bald and bearded Paul (Kitzinger 1956, 248–64). These could be seen as accompanying either the Virgin Mary on one end of the coffin, or the figure of Christ, blessing and holding a book and with symbols of the four Evangelists on the top: these latter could appear together with Christ as Teacher, for example in the apse mosaic of S. Pudenziana, Rome, dated between 402–17 (Schiller 1986, pl. 618; see also the discussion of Dewsbury 4 below). Sculptures, possibly parts of sarcophagi, with male figures under arches, some of which can be convincingly identified as apostles, are found at Breedon in Leicestershire, Bakewell in Derbyshire, and at Castor and Peterborough, Northamptonshire, where there is both a fragment and the complete 'Hedda' stone (Cramp 1977, figs. 57a–c, 58b, 59a–c, 60a; see also Routh 1937, pls. Vb, VIa). Some of these figures are front-facing, some in procession, some clearly carry books or scrolls. None has been certainly identified as Christ, though one figure at Breedon might be: he is seated and frontal, holding a book (Cramp 1977, fig. 59c). It is possible that the lowest section of the early ninth-century round shaft from Reculver, Kent, is a version of the teaching Christ with apostles, although the choice possibly of only four apostles with two identified as Peter and Paul, suggests it might have been an extended version of the basic Traditio Legis (Tweddle et al. 1995, 156–61, ills. 113–115). Another higher tier might possibly have had twelve apostles (ibid., ills. 108–12). Hawkes has shown that a variant of the Traditio Legis which includes the investment of St Peter with the keys was represented on one of the Sandbach crosses in Cheshire, of similar date (Hawkes 2002a, 56–62). The date of some these pieces presupposes a revival of interest in the late antique, early Christian imagery, which is a noted feature of Carolingian art of the late eight, early ninth century.

It is this aspect, of the revival of early Christian and late antique styles and imagery, which Lang (2001, 170) emphasised in relation to Masham, but he particularly pointed to the fact that the layout and indeed the overall form of such round shafts was based on early Christian columns, such as two of the shafts of the ciborium over the shrine of St Mark in Venice (ibid., 171, ill. 1198). The resemblance is strengthened by the fact that the Dewsbury shaft, like the ciborium columns, has clear evidence of carved inscriptions on bands above the scenes. Lang further suggested that such shafts were examples of the 'Apostle pillars' erected close to rivers in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. These pillars seem to have been associated with baptism, and their layout (with the apostles on the shaft of the cross) with the idea that the apostles were 'pillars of the church': however, see also the discussion of Dewsbury 4 below. There are other examples of shafts which might fall into this category, for example Otley 1 and Collingham 1, the latter of which is actually a 'round-shaft derivative' (see also Chap. IV, p. 39).

Inscription The inscription on Dewsbury 1 (Ills. 190–1) clearly served to identify the enthroned figure below as Christ. The closest analogies in Anglo-Saxon sculpture are the inscriptions over the standing figures of Christ on the cross-shafts at Bewcastle and Ruthwell: '[+]g[e]ssus kristtus' and '[+]IH[S] X[PS]' (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 61, ills. 90, 103; Cassidy 1992, pl. 23). As on Dewsbury 1, the inscription at Ruthwell is on a raised band above the figure, but at Ruthwell the bands enclose the figure as a frame and the vertical sides are also inscribed. There are two further possible parallels in Northumbrian sculpture. One is the inscription, of which only one or two letters are now legible, on a band above the Crucifixion panel on the cross-shaft fragment from Alnmouth, Northumberland (Cramp 1984, 161, pl. 156.808). Inscribed bands, which may similarly have related to carved figures, can also be seen in an inaccurate eighteenth-century engraving of a lost fragment from Norham, Northumberland, a possible piece of a cross-shaft (ibid., 211–12, pl. 206.1188; Okasha 1971, 103, pl. 95).

Naming inscriptions such as those on Dewsbury 1, Bewcastle and Ruthwell would not have been necessary for identification of the figures, and indeed most Anglo-Saxon figure sculpture appeared without such inscriptions. They would, however, have invited the viewer to concentrate on the names of Christ. The possible purposes of such inscriptions in various media are discussed by Gameson (1995, 87–91).

Dewsbury 5 (Ill. 207) resembles Dewsbury 1 in its setting of inscriptions on horizontal bands above panels of figure sculpture. The letters on Dewsbury 5 are smaller and more lightly incised than those on no. 1, with letter heights in the range of 2.5–3.0 cm as opposed to 3.5–4.0 cm. This is not a compelling argument against their having formed part of the same monument. It may simply have been a matter of emphasis, marking out the figure and names of Christ as more important than the scenes and texts on Dewsbury 5.

The letter forms of the short inscription on Dewsbury 1 provide few indications of dating. I, H, angular S and V can be found in inscriptions from c. 698 (St Cuthbert's coffin) until the end of the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond (Okasha 1964–8, table 1a). The same is true of the straight-lined 'Roman' capital form of X, which can be found used for X and for chi both early and late in both epigraphic and display script (Okasha 1971, pls. 28, 61, 64; Alexander 1978, ill. 39). If it is right, as suggested above, to identify the form of the rho as a version of P found in display script in Insular decorative capitals, that would confirm a dating for the Dewsbury 1 lettering to the period in which Insular decorative capitals were current, between the later seventh and earlier ninth century. (The form is comparable to, but not directly connected with, the vestigial 'rho-hook' of monogrammatic crosses found between the fifth and eighth centuries in western Britain, for example at Kirkmadrine, Wigtownshire (Forsyth 2005, figs. 8.4, 8.5; Trench-Jellicoe 1998, 502–3).)

The normal form of the nomen sacrum abbreviation for Christus was XPS. The spelling XPVS was irregular and not apparently common (Traube 1907, 147–8, 160–1; Lindsay 1915, 402–4; Okasha 1971, 156).

Late eighth to early ninth century

Whitaker 1816, I, 301, pl. facing 299, pl. between 300/1; Haigh 1856–7, 509–10, pl. 3; Whitaker 1859, 153–5, figs. facing 154 and on 157; Fowler 1870, 222, 223, fig. facing 222; Robinson, J. 1872, 8, figs. on 8, 10; (–––) 1882a, 449; Allen and Browne 1885, 354; Allen 1890, 296, 297, 299, 310; Allen 1891, 163, nos. 5, 8, 9; Morris 1911, 174; Collingwood 1912, 113, 119, 129; Lethaby 1913, 159; Collingwood 1915a, 162–3, 283, 289, figs. a, b, c on 162; Collingwood 1923, 7; Collingwood 1927, 6– 7, 33, 73, 74, 109, 116, figs. 13(6), 90a–c; Collingwood 1929, 25, 27, figs. a, b, c on 25; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 196, and fig.; Brown 1937, 185–6, pl. LIII; Kendrick 1938, 194; Kendrick 1941a, 14– 15; Mee 1941, 119; Kendrick 1949, 72; Pevsner 1959, 179; Okasha 1964–8, 322; Okasha 1971, 66, no. 31, and pl. (Dewsbury II); Cramp 1977, 218; Cramp and Lang 1977, cat. 2a; Okasha 1983, 109, 116; Cramp 1984, 51; Higgitt 1986b, 130, 136, 147; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 30; Lang 1991, 168; Cramp 1992, 201; Okasha 1992, 80; Ryder 1993, 11, ill. 15; Sidebottom 1994, 87–8, 245, nos. 2, 3, 4, and pls.; Tweddle et al. 1995, 93; Lang and Wrathmell 1997, 378; Cramp 1999, 9, fig. 1.2; Lang 1999, 273, pl. 3; Lang 2000, 115–16; Lang 2001, 24, 170, 171; Hawkes 2002b, 343, 344, 345, fig. 14a–b; Hawkes 2003a, 78, 79; Hawkes 2003b, 365; Okasha 2004, 273; Hawkes 2006a, 109, 110, 111, 112, fig. 48; Hawkes 2006b, 250–2, cat. 273–5, ills. 273, 274

[1] The following are general references to the Dewsbury stones: Hunter 1834, 149–68; Nichols 1836, 39; Haigh 1857, 155n; Hübner 1876, 63, no. 173; Browne 1885–6, 128; Allen 1889, 129, 213, 217–18, 220, 222; Allen 1890, 293; Fowler 1903, 128; MacMichael 1906, 360–1; Morris 1911, 46, 174–5; Lethaby 1913, 158–9; Collingwood 1915b, 334; Glynne 1917a, 191; Collingwood 1923, 7; Collingwood 1927, 6–7, 33, 74, 109, 116, fig. 13(6); Collingwood 1929, 17, 22, 24, 28–9, 30, 33, fig. on 28; Collingwood 1932, 51, 53; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 196, fig. 36; Mee 1941, 119; Pevsner 1959, 20, 179; Cramp 1978a, 9; Faull 1981, 218; Ryder 1991, 20; Ryder 1993, 18, 149; Sidebottom 1994, 87–8, 156; Page 1995, 298; Lang and Wrathmell 1997, 375; Hadley 2000a, 248; Butler 2006, 93.