Upper part stolen from church in 1992 (White, A. 2003a, 8); lower section on loan to Lancaster City Museum since 1992

Removed in 1903 from outer north wall of the Priory. The lower fragment was found in 1903 (Collingwood 1903b, 257); one face of the upper fragment had been visible in the wall before this (Glynne 1893, 88; Collingwood 1902). White (A. 2003a, 7) notes that this wall was probably of late eleventh-/early twelfth-century date and abutted the original cloister. It thus remained undisturbed by the re-buildings of the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

St Mary

The surviving lower section of shaft has been partially cut away on face A, is heavily worn on face B, and almost totally re-cut on face D.

Note that it would be possible to change the relationship of the fragments so that face C of the lower fragment could relate to face A of the upper stone, with consequent changes to the relationships of the other faces. The reconstruction adopted here follows that of Collingwood (1903b, fig. 1; 1927a, fig. 74).

A (broad): On the (now lost) upper fragment a part of the lower section of the lower cross-arm survived, with a roll-moulding border enclosing knotwork (a pattern F loop and two pointed terminals). At the top of the shaft, set within a flanking roll-moulding frame and inner border moulding is an incomplete inscription without framing lines, which is described below.
The surviving panel on the lower fragment is similarly bordered and carries a single-stemmed scroll with two and a half spiralling side-shoots terminating in berry bunches. There is a binding/ridged node at the point where main and side shoots part, and paired pointed leaves, eroded into pellets, fill the space between splitting stems and border. Each side-shoot produces a single pointed and veined drop leaf.
There are traces of red paint in the area of the inscription.

Inscription The inscription in Anglo-Saxon capitals, set in three lines in a panel, reads:

This is a Latin memorial text, Orate p(ro) anima Hard-, 'Pray for the soul of Hard-', the stone broken away and leaving the remainder of the personal name lost. Although p(ro) is abbreviated, Okasha (1971, 90) could find no sign of an abbreviation mark.

B (narrow): The surviving part of the head carries a series of horizontal mouldings framed by a roll-moulding border. The shaft below is framed laterally by a single roll moulding. On the upper fragment this is decorated with a single-stemmed spiral scroll terminating in some form of split leaf. A pointed veined leaf project upwards from the only surviving spiral shoot; this shoot lacks any fruit termination.
On the worn lower fragment is a single-stemmed spiral scroll with veined pointed leaves dropping from the spiral offshoots; these offshoots seemingly lack fruit terminations. There is no trace of any ridged node. Paired foliate forms set within further paired leaves fill the space between the splitting stem and the border in the lower left corner.

C (broad): No decoration now survives on the badly-eroded (lost) head, though some traces of a roll-moulding border remain. On the shaft is the spiralling termination of a single-stemmed scroll, topped by two drooping veined and pointed leaves; the spiral encloses a rosette berry bunch.
The lower fragment, like the upper, is framed by a roll-moulding border and an inner moulding; it carries a single-stemmed spiral scroll, the two surviving spirals terminating in rosette berry bunches. A veined and pointed leaf drops from the upper spiral and there are traces of an additional foliate tendril emerging at the top right of the fragment. The splitting of main stem and spiral offshoots lacks any ridged node but, at the bottom of the shaft, three sets of paired rib-like leaves, set within each other, fill the space between the dividing stems and the border.

D (narrow): Decoration only survives fully on the (now lost) upper fragment. On the head, within a roll-moulding border, is a set of horizontal mouldings placed one above the other. On the shaft, within a single roll-moulding border is a fragment of single-stemmed spiral scroll, with a veined and pointed leaf springing upwards to the left and a (?) half-moon veined leaf dropping to the right; there is no trace of any berry bunch at the centre of the spiral. The lower fragment carries some continuation of the ornament at the top of the stone.

The inscription is one of a marked concentration of literate monuments in the Lune valley (see Chapter IV, p. 20). As Cramp has noted, the use of full-length panels of scroll on the shaft reaches back to early work at Hexham (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 16–17). But the particular realisation of that tradition here takes on a typically western form. Though, unlike Lancaster St Mary 3 and Lancaster Vicarage Field 1, this shaft does not attempt to follow the combinations of single and double scrolls seen at Lowther and Heversham (Ills. 577–80, 603–6; Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 351–4, 436–9), it does — in typical western fashion — combine tightly-spiralled scrolls terminating in a grape bunch with trail forms which have no central leaf or fruit (see locally Lancaster St Mary 3 and Vicarage Field 1) and has the 'western split-stemmed' form of side-stem (see Chapter IV, pp. 20–1).

Other details of this shaft can similarly be paralleled within this western group of scrolls: the veined and pointed leaf recurs at Lancaster St Mary 6, Heysham 1, Gressingham 1 and Lowther (Ills. 458–61, 515, 588, 590; Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 435, 436–9); the 'ribbed' form of leaf is found again at Halton Green (Ill. 504); the half-moon veined form, though in a scooped variant, re-appears on Lancaster St Mary 6 and Lowther (Ills. 588, 590; Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 436); the horizontal mouldings on the side of the head are employed on Gressingham 3, Capernwray Hall and Hornby 2 (Ills. 439, 441, 473, 475, 555–6) whilst the combination of single and double borders is a characteristic motif within the group.

Inscription For the use of orate pro and gebiddan fore in local inscriptions see above, p. 93. The deceased here bore an Anglo-Saxon personal name beginning with the element H(e)ard-. This appears to be limited to masculine names (e.g. Heardberht, Heardred, Heardwulf; also Hearding). The form Hard- is Northumbrian (Campbell 1959, § 144).

Late eighth/ninth century

Browne 1887a, 7, pl. III, fig. 7; Collingwood 1902, 273, fig. 1; Collingwood 1903b, 257–9, figs. 1, 2; Taylor, H. 1903, 49–50, figs. II, 2 (a–c); Collingwood 1904a, 332; Garstang 1906, 266; Taylor, H. 1906, 341–3, figs. II, 2 (a–c); Collingwood 1909, 154; Ditchfield 1909, 116; Collingwood 1927a, 58–9, fig. 74; Collingwood 1932, 40; Edwards, B. 1966, 148–9; Okasha 1966–8, 324–5; Pevsner 1969b, 154; Okasha 1971, 89–90, pl. 67; Edwards, B. 1978a, 64–5 (B); Cramp 1984, 212; Higgitt 1986b, 130, 133, 134, 147; Edwards, B. 1987b, 46; Edwards, B. 1988a, 205; Okasha 1990, 141, 144, fig. 14; Lang 1991, 45, 64, 109, 138; Okasha 1992a, 82; Higgitt 1995, 230; Crosby 1998, fig. 18; Noble 1999, 26, fig. 37b; Lang 2001, 52, 252, 268, 303; Bailey 2003, 225; White, A. 2003a, 8; Okasha 2004, 275; Edwards, N. 2007a, 95; Coatsworth 2008, 144, 233

[1]Though all the Lancaster sculptures may have originated at the priory church site, the carvings are here divided into three groups which reflect their find spot. See also Capernwray Hall 1 (p. 169).

[2] The following are general references to the Lancaster stones: Taylor, H. 1898, 42; Farrer and Brownbill 1914, 3, 22; Fellows-Jensen 1985, 273, 402, 405; Higham, N. 2004a, 27, 167, 206; Blair 2005, 216, 309; Salter 2005, 49.

The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37550, items 666–98, 734 (Romilly Allen collection).