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Object type: Part of cross-head
Measurements: H. 41 cm (16 in); W. 29 > 21 cm (11.5 > 8.25 in); D. 20 cm (8 in)
Stone type: Greyish orange pink (5YR 7/2), fairly well-sorted, clast-supported, medium-grained (0.3 to 0.6 mm) sandstone; a few scattered clasts up to 5 mm. The clasts are sub-angular to sub-rounded, mostly quartz, but there are a few dark grains. ?Helsby Sandstone Formation, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 405-8
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 163
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Centre and lower arm of a cross-head of type 9 with expanded fan-like terminals. Collingwood (in Whickham 1915, fig. facing 172) shows the surrounding moulding as cabled; there is no trace of this detail now.
A (broad): A large central boss stands, 5 cm high, above the surviving cross-arm whose expanded terminal then narrows towards the now-lost shaft. Four-strand plait within a moulding border decorates the arm, the plait expanding to fit the outline.
B (narrow): An arris border runs round the curve of the arm and onto the junction with the (now-lost) shaft but, otherwise, no decoration survives.
C (broad): There are some traces of a boss at the centre; decoration of the arm is as on A.
D (narrow): As face B
The head shape falls into the 'penannular' group so popular in the western foothills of the Pennines in the Viking period (see Chapter V, p. 33). The interlace decoration does not, as is usual, run from arm to arm; each arm pattern was discrete — a lay-out also found in western Yorkshire at Kildwick in Craven (Collingwood 1915, 198, fig. c; Coatsworth 2008, ill. 415). The prominent cone-shaped boss is a noticeable feature of local crosses at Lancashire sites like Bolton le Moors, Colne, Ribchester and Whalley (Ills. 413, 417, 445–50, 636–7, 697–700); in another context Cramp has commented that bosses become more prominent in late sculpture (Lang 2001, 119).
