Forming part of the left-hand side of a recess in wall of back door porch at Halton Green East Farm

Discovered in its present position in c. 1982 when plaster was removed. The rear wing of the house containing the fragment is late sixteenth century, re-modelled in the eighteenth century. It is possible that the stone was acquired in c. 1792 when the church at Halton was re-built (so Potts 1982, 18–19).

In its present position the shaft is set upside down. Only face A is fully visible, together with the border and a small fragment of decoration on the adjacent face B.

A (?broad): Three panels survive, flanked by a double moulding. (i) At the top is the termination of a panel of knotwork. (ii) Below, under a worn horizontal border, is a panel which is now blank; part of its border carries a spot of blue/black paint. (iii) Below is a single-stemmed spiral scroll terminating at the top in a stem which splits and terminates in pointed leaves. Two complete volutes, together with the vestigial remains of a third, are visible. The upper volute splits from the main stem at the bottom of the curve, and then runs parallel with it before spiralling away; there is no fruit or leaf at the centre of the spiral but there is a pointed drop-leaf emerging below from the outer spiral. The lower of the two volutes splits from the main stem at the top of the curve and also has no fruit at the centre of the spiral. A triangular form fills the space between the stem and the right border. There are possible traces of a drop-leaf to the lower right. Only the top of the very worn third volute survives.

B (?narrow): Inside the double border there are possible traces of a scroll towards the bottom of the stone.

Potts (1982, 18) argued that this stone was part of the same carving as Halton St Wilfrid 6 (Ills. 491–3); given the difference between them in leaf forms this is unlikely. But there is no doubt that its tightly-spiralled scroll can be grouped with others appearing on several local shafts at Halton, Heysham and Lancaster, together with Heversham in Westmorland (see Chapter IV, pp. 20–1).

This Halton Green scroll has the characteristic 'split-stemmed' form of a set of western vine-scrolls (see Chapter IV, p. 20). Within the Lune valley, examples of this western group — forms without fruit at the centre of the spiral but with a drop-leaf — occur at Halton St Wilfrid 6, Heysham 1, Lancaster St Mary 2 and 3, and Lancaster Vicarage Field 1 (Ills. 492, 514–15, 570, 572, 574, 578, 580, 606). The two-panel combination of scroll and knotwork appears again on Lancaster St Mary 6, where exactly the same interlace form is used (Ills. 588–91). The triangular element filling the space between the arris and the scroll-stem may well be a variant on the types seen on Lancaster St Mary 2 and the half-moon on Lancaster St Mary 6 (Ills. 573, 575, 588, 590), whilst, again within the group, there are various forms of double-leaf termination to the top of a single scroll at Halton St Wilfrid 6, Lancaster St Mary 2 and 3; none, however, are exactly like the type seen here.

The lay-out of the panels suggests that there may have been an inscription on the small panel (Ill. 504). As such it would be part of the markedly literate group of monuments in the area (see Chapter IV, p. 20); like the Lancaster St Mary carvings this (hypothetical) inscription occupies a position on the shaft (Ills. 562, 566, 568–9). The rare occurrence of paint should be noted (see Chapter IV, p. 25, and Higgitt 1986b, 131–2).

Later ninth century

Potts 1982, 18–20; Potts and Shirras 2002b, 9