On loan to Lancaster City Museum since c. 1992

Removed in 1903 from outer north wall of the Priory; see Lancaster (Priory) 2 above. First recorded in 1887 when only the narrow faces of both fragments were visible (Browne 1887a, 7).

St Mary

Face B has lost a large section of the upper shaft and this damage is also reflected in adjacent areas of faces A and C.

A (broad): The shaft is occupied by a single incomplete panel flanked, and topped, by a double roll-moulding border. The decoration consists of four complete interlaced medallion scrolls; the upper medallion is formed by a tangled interlace whose loose ends are marked by swollen terminals whilst the other medallions contain fruit forms. The two central medallions are filled by two triangular berry bunches, set in a whorl fashion, accompanied by loose pellets. The lowest medallion contains two hanging berry bunches of similar form but without pellets. On the left, between the stem crossings and the border there is a pellet or bud, whilst to the right there is at least one pointed and scooped leaf in a similar position.

B (narrow): Decoration only survives on the lower fragment and consists of a panel of single-stemmed spiral scroll, flanked by a single roll-moulding border. Three spirals survive, the side-shoots breaking from the main stem at the bottom of the curve and running parallel with the main stem before scrolling away at the top of its curve. A pointed (and ?scooped) leaf hangs from each spiral.

C (broad): The single panel of ornament is doubly bordered as on face A and here consists of a single-stemmed spiral scroll, the five surviving spirals terminating in rounded berry bunches. There is a clear ridged node at the bottom of the composition. The spaces between stem and border are filled with a variety of foliate/fruit forms: triangular scooped leaf, round berry on the end of a short stem — and loose pellets. At the top a vertical offshoot splits and falls away to end in a round leaf, whilst to the right is another offshoot which loops around itself before ending in a scooped round leaf.

D (narrow): As face B, but with eight spiral scrolls visible, three of them carrying grape bunches inside the spiral. More clearly than on B, it is evident that each spiral has a subsidiary stem at the top which ends in a round leaf, whilst those spirals without grape bunches have terminal leaf forms which hang below the spiral.

As noted under Lancaster St Mary 2, the development of full-length scroll panels reaches back to Hexham but the specific composition seen here is typical of south Cumbria and north Lancashire in its combination of a broad face with medallion scroll and a second face with a trailing spiral scroll centring on both fruit clusters and non-fruiting terminals. This is the combination found earlier at both Lowther and Heversham (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 351–4, 440–3) and repeated locally on Lancaster Vicarage Field 1 (Ills. 603–6). The scroll on face D has the characteristic 'split-stemmed' form of a group of western vine-scrolls (Chapter IV, pp. 20–1).

In other details, this shaft can be further related to the western group of scrolls and particularly to carvings from the Lune valley area. Thus the tangled fruitless stems at the top of face A are readily paralleled on Halton St Wilfrid 1 and 2, whilst Lancaster Vicarage Field 1 offers the best analogy for the delicate twisted terminations of the stems at the top of the panel on face C of this shaft (Ills. 466, 477, 479, 605). Similarly the fruitless scrolls with dropped leaves on the narrow edges are also found on Lancaster Vicarage Field 1 and elsewhere in the area (see Heysham 1 and Gressingham 1: Ills. 459, 461, 510, 606). The scooped pellet on the end of a stiff stalk recurs in the Lune valley at Lancaster St Mary 8, which also carried loose pellets, and an earlier, related scroll from Lowther also has the scooped pellet on a stiff stem (Ill. 596; Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 439). There are two scooped leaf forms on this cross. One, on face C, is more triangular and is best paralleled in west Yorkshire at Otley (Coatsworth 2008, ill. 584). The other, on face A, which is more pointed, is exactly matched on Heysham 1 (Ill. 510).

Cramp (in Edwards, B. 1966, 148) noted the variety of design within the medallions of this shaft. Lowther 1 similarly varies its medallion content, though in a different manner (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 436). The closest parallel within the western group, however, comes from Kendal where, on different faces, there are both the hanging balanced grapes seen in the lower medallion at Lancaster and the 'whorl' of grapes in the two medallions above, though on the more accomplished Kendal carving these 'whorls' involve triple forms (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 380–3).

Late eighth/early ninth century

Browne 1887a, 7, pl. III, fig. 6; Collingwood 1902, 273–4, fig. 2; Collingwood 1903b, 259–61, fig. 4; Taylor, H. 1903, 51, figs. III, 3 (a); Collingwood 1904a, 331–2; Garstang 1906, 266; Taylor, H. 1906, 343, fig. III facing 337, pl. facing 341 (fig. 3a); Ditchfield 1909, 116; Collingwood 1927a, 35–6, fig. 46; Collingwood 1932, 40; Routh 1937, 6; Cramp 1965, 63; Edwards, B. 1966, 148; Pevsner 1969b, 16, 154; Cramp 1976, 269; Edwards, B. 1978a, 65; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 16, 46, 75, 114, 120, 128, ills. 679–80; Edwards, B. 1988a, 205; Noble 1999, 26, fig. 37g; Lang 2001, 303; White, A. 2003a, 8

[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).