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Object type: Part of shaft [1]
Measurements: H. 64 cm (25.25 in); W. 31 > 17 cm (12.25 > 6.75 in); D. 13 cm (5 in)
Stone type: Yellowish grey (5Y 7/2), moderately sorted, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. The sub-angular to sub-rounded clasts range from medium-grained (0.3 mm) to very coarse-grained (2.0 mm), but are mostly medium- to coarse-grained in the range 0.4 to 0.6 mm. ?Pendle Grit Formation, Millstone Grit, Carboniferous
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 484-7
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 187-9
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A (broad): Parts of two panels survive, both flanked laterally by cable mouldings. (i) The upper scene is given an inner arched frame with its own base. Set inside the frame is, to the left, a haloed figure seen in profile and facing to the right. His head is inclined and he wears a short garment which reveals bare legs below. To the right in front of him is a second, smaller and ?cowled figure, also seen in profile, whose body is shown half-length emerging from a tub-like feature. The standing figure reaches down towards his companion whose own arms stretch up towards him. (ii) The lower panel, which only survives in part, is set in an arched frame, the arch carrying a pelleted decoration and slab capitals. The scene within shows three figures, the central one forward-facing and the others half-turned inwards; all are seemingly haloed. Their features are now very worn but the right-hand figure is smaller than his companions. The flanking figures have arms across their bodies, the left-hand figure grasping a large scroll or key, the right possibly holding a book, whilst the central figure appears to have an object (book?) in his left hand and raises his right in blessing.
B (narrow): Only the left-hand lateral cable-moulding border survives, with parts of the inner frames from two panels which were divided horizontally by a pelleted border. The lower frame was arched with a slab capital and both seem to have carried pellet decoration. (i) In the upper panel a (?naked) archer, with one knee slightly raised, shoots up from the lower left of the scene towards a bird set in a scroll. (ii) The panel below carried knotwork of a now unidentifiable form; Collingwood (1927a, fig. 92e) interpreted these remains as those of a scroll.
C (broad) and D (narrow): Lost
Like the other Halton shafts this stone has pelleted borders, slab capitals and cable mouldings (see Chapter IV, p. 21). The two scenes on face A are badly worn but the general disposition suggests that Cramp (1970, 61) was right to see here an example, as with Halton St Wilfrid 7, of small animated scenes set against insubstantial architectural backgrounds which are probably a reflex of tastes seen in Carolingian illumination and manuscripts.
The upper scene on face A can be identified with some certainty as Christ's Harrowing of Hell (Ills. 484–5). The tall haloed and bent figure of Christ and the smaller figure of Adam, hands raised to be lifted up, are characteristic features of this scene. Frescoes at S. Maria Antiqua and S. Clemente in Rome of the eighth century and at ninth-century Müstair provide good early examples of the composition in the west (Schiller 1971a, 45–7; Osborne 1984, 170–8, pls. 24, 26; Avery 1925, figs. 27, 36; Hubert et al. 1969, pl. 166b); it can also be seen in later English art in the two psalters Harley 603 and the Tiberius Psalter, as well as on a slab or panel in Bristol Cathedral (Ohlgren 1986, pls. 19, 24; Backhouse et al. 1984, no. 66; Cramp 2006, 145–6, ill. 198). A variant form, involving a baby-like Adam in a box-like coffin together with other souls, occurs on the Wirksworth sculpture in Derbyshire (Hawkes 1995b, 255–6, 267–8): this is more closely related to the type seen in two reliquaries, one of c. 700 and the other early eighth century in date, from the eastern Mediterranean (Schiller 1971a, pls. 99, 101). It is likely that the 'tub-like' feature in the lower right area of this Halton panel represents the mouth of Hell, perhaps even shown as an animal's mouth, from which Adam is being delivered. If so, it is among the earliest such representations, approximately contemporary with the ninth-century ivory in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Beckwith 1972, ills. 1, 16). The scene does not seem to occur in Ireland or Scotland. Best known through the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (itself well evidenced in Anglo-Saxon England — see Gneuss 2001, 166, 167), the story of Christ's descent into Hell early became one of the basic tenets of Christian belief familiar both in everyday worship and in the liturgy of baptism. Essentially it is a demonstration of Christ's obedient humility and, particularly given the presence of Adam, an assurance of the salvation offered in the future Resurrection.
The incomplete scene below, showing three figures, is less certain of interpretation (Ill. 485). There are two contending identifications, whose iconographies are however closely related: the Traditio Legis cum Clavis and the Raised Christ (Harbison 1992, i, 291–5; see also discussion of Sandbach Market Square 1 above, pp. 109–10). The near identity of these two scenes can be judged by their seeming joint appearance on Muiredach's cross at Monasterboice and by disputes over the precise significance of the analogous depictions on an early ninth-century staurothek in the Vatican Museums and on a lost fresco from S. Urbano alla Caffarella in Rome of c. 1000 (Harbison 1992, iii, figs. 923–4, 926). It is probable that, at Halton, we have a representation of the Traditio Legis cum Clavis, which has previously been discussed in its appearance at Sandbach. Hawkes (2002, 56–62) sees this as a scene being developed in Christian art of the west in the early years of the ninth century, and as a scheme which 'symbolised the Word of God made manifest through Christ's triumph over death, and given to Peter or Paul, the foremost of the Apostles, as a sign that they must instruct the Christian community in its meaning' (Hawkes 2002, 57).
The motif of an archer taking aim at a bird (Ill. 486), often within a scroll, is found elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon art. In sculpture it occurs at St Andrews Auckland, Co. Durham, and in the Peak District area at Sheffield, Bradbourne — twice — and Bakewell (Cramp 1984, 40, pl. 5.12; Coatsworth 2008, 247–8, ill. 692; Hawkes 2007b, 444). Raw (1967) has discussed two examples on late Saxon ivories, whilst the same theme is found again in the Corbie Psalter of c. 800 (Shapiro 1963, fig. 14). This motif has been much discussed, particularly in relation to the Ruthwell cross, though it should be noted that the form there lacks the scroll setting of the other examples (Saxl 1943; Kantorwicz 1960; Schapiro 1963; Raw 1967; Farrell 1978b; Meyvaert 1992, 140–5; Mitchell 2001, 104; Ó Carragáin 2005, 141–2). It is clear from these studies and the work of Spitz (1972, 219–23) that psalm commentaries and other patristic writings, as well as the context of the individual scenes, would allow both negative and positive meanings; indeed Pope Gregory in his Moralia in Job, Book XIX, chap. 30 emphasises the multivalence of this image (Adriaen 1979, 998–1002). In view of the possible 'deliverance' and 'teaching church' themes elsewhere on the cross it may however be worth emphasising that, whilst Gregory and Cassiodorus included 'the Day of Judgement' among their meanings for the archer and his arrows, Bede, in his commentary on Habakkuk, verse 9, sees the archer as referring to those who teach, through whom Christ 'will surely threaten that your judgement is suddenly to come, so that whoever is frightened at the threat of wrath like a bent bow, and takes care to crave your mercy, will not experience the shooting of arrows, that is, the warning of eternal punishments' (Hudson, J. 1983, 394; Connolly 1997, 79).
Potts (1982, 19) argued that this fragment was part of the same shaft as Halton (St Wilfrid) 5 to which it is now attached; this is certainly a possibility even though the animated small scenes of this shaft are very different in feel to the iconic figures of no. 5. Inevitably, however, it is not possible to suggest a total iconographic explanation of the shaft — problems of identification, fragmentary survival and doubts as to whether Halton 5 was once part of the same monument, all combine to hinder interpretation.
