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Object type: Part of cross-shaft [1]
Measurements: H. 34.3 cm (13.5 in); W. max. 14.6 cm (5.75 in); D. 14 > 12.7 cm (5.5 > 5 in)
Stone type: Sandstone, reddened, medium to coarse-grained, hard quartz cemented, slightly micaceous. Middle Coal Measures Group, Carboniferous (Local Thornhill Rock?). [G.L.]
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 208-11
Corpus volume reference: Vol 8 p. 139
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Part of a cross-shaft of squarish section. All faces are edged with a simple cable moulding. The figure carving has a flat un-modelled surface, but the strands of plant and interlace on the other faces although shallow and straight-sided have some modelling of the upper surface.
A (broad): Filled with the lower half of a frontal figure wearing a knee-length tunic with a contoured outline. The hem curves upwards above the knees in a line following the arc of a circle, and divides in the centre to form a narrow inverted U-shape, a very stylised representation of the tie or fold in the centre of a loin-cloth.
B (narrow): Edged by an inner flat moulding. There is a continuous double-strand interlace, five registers of half pattern A.
C (broad): This also has an inner flat moulding. The whole face is taken up by a large figure facing right, with legs bent at the hip as though seated. Its head is missing. It holds in its right hand a stick figure with featureless round head, long thin body, and thin legs, which could be seated on the knee of the larger figure.
D (narrow): The edgings are as on face B, but this has a continuous running scroll with double bindings at the springing of every volute, and each volute terminating in a flower or berry bunch. Pointed serrated leaves fill the spandrels between the volutes.
This is certainly a staff crucifix as at Kirkburton (Ills. 416–24), though in a very different style, in which the head and arms of the crucified Christ would have extended into the arms of the cross-head (Coatsworth 1979, I, 245–6): indeed, it is difficult to see how the figure on face A could have been completed if it did not carry on into the head (Ill. 208). Its relatively slender proportions also link it with Kirkburton, and this cross could have been taller originally. Collingwood (1915a, 171) suggested that the figure on the opposite face represented a 'manticora' or man -eating figure representing death (see also Cawthorne 4, p. 117), but the animal head given to this figure by Collingwood (ibid., fig. t) is pure supposition as the head is completely missing above the neck (Ill. 210). It is very crude, but it can be construed as a seated figure with a smaller figure on one knee, and is thus more probably a Virgin and Child, copying the iconography which appears, much more finely carved, but with the same basic pose, on the shaft fragment Dewsbury 4 (Ills. 198, 200). An attenuated programme showing God's giving of Himself in human form through Mary, and at His Crucifixion seems complete in itself. The layout suggests that this cross was still in touch with the iconography and decorative motifs of Anglian art, and was a continuation of the Anglian tradition of crosses with a figural programme on the main faces, and interlace and scroll patterns on the sides. Even the cable edgings suggest links with earlier works at Dewsbury, and so does the spiral scroll on face D, which seems to echo the delicate scroll on face B of Dewsbury 4 (Ill. 201). The style of carving, in relief but not modelled, however, clearly relates to styles prevalent in the Anglo-Scandinavian period. The unweathered condition might suggest that this cross never stood outside.
