The lathe-turned cylindrical stone has a square abacus with mortise hole at the top. Below the abacus the capital is conical. One narrow fillet moulding survives near the top and there are traces of two others below.

There is no stratigraphic evidence for assigning this capital to the Anglo-Saxon period. Nevertheless, the technique of turning on a lathe does seem to be Anglo-Saxon rather than Norman in date and this carving can therefore be accepted as a pre-Conquest piece.

In publishing it, Potts and Shirras (2002a, 6) suggested that it could be paralleled by the capitals at Reculver church, which would indicate a very early context for the Lancaster sculpture. The shape of the Reculver capitals is, however, totally different (Tweddle et al. 1995, ills. 123, 126, 134). Much closer in form are the lathe-turned capitals re-used in the eastern slype of Worcester Cathedral; among these the sixth capital from the west end in the north arcade offers a particularly close parallel. The source of these latter capitals presumably lay in one of the Saxon cathedral churches demolished in or shortly after 1084 to make way for Wulfstan's new cathedral church. St Mary's, Worcester, started in the 960s by Bishop Oswald and finished in 983, is the most likely original location. A further parallel can be found among the re-used shafts with integral capitals and bases at St Albans which also seem to date to the tenth century (Tweddle et al. 1995, 236–40, ills. 376–96).

The Lancaster capital would thus seem to be the only surviving physical evidence for an ambitious late Saxon church on this site.[2]

[1] I am grateful to Professor W. Potts for assistance in locating this sculpture.

[2] I am grateful to Dr Richard Gem and Dr Richard Bryant for advice on this carving and for supplying photographs of the Worcester capitals.