In south-west corner of church, the three fragments reassembled, with errors, into a single monument in 1890 (Scholes 1892, 81; Edwards, B. 1988c).

Discovered under the tower when an earlier church was taken down in 1866 ((—) 1886c, 341; Taylor, H. 1906, 474; Farrer and Brownbill 1911b, 237). Scholes (1892, 75) described the stones as being found 'in the walls and foundations of the old sanctuary'.

St Peter

The west face (C) is now inaccessible and the east face (A) of the upper shaft fragment is badly worn. Earlier photographs and drawings do not always distinguish between original and restored parts of this monument. Thus the lower arm of the cross-head is formed by a piece of modern stone, the top of the pointed moulding on face A of the upper shaft fragment is made of cement, and the two shaft fragments were clearly not as immediately contiguous as they now appear.

The surviving cross-head transom suggests a head of type E10 with expanded terminals; the upper shaft fragment preserves the characteristic expansion of a shouldered type (D). The lower panels on all four faces are topped by a plinth-like moulding which encompasses the entire shaft.

A (broad): The decoration on the transom is surrounded by a bold arris moulding and consists of a central boss (with drilled hole) surrounded by a ring. In each surviving arm is a flat boss. The upper shaft fragment has a bold roll-moulding border both laterally and at the top; the expansion for the lower cross-arm survives. Decoration consists of a sub-triquetra form set over a (now very damaged) disk or boss. On the lower fragment are two panels, both with heavy moulding borders. The upper carries a triquetra, with extended and pointed upper element, set within an inverted V-shaped frame. The panel below is decorated with two linked Stafford knots (simple pattern E).

B (narrow): The end of the arm is decorated with battlement pattern (Bailey and Cramp 1988, fig. 6d), set within a roll-moulding frame, and the upper shaft fragment carries similar ornament, framed laterally by a bold roll-moulding border. The lower fragment carries two panels with heavy moulding borders; the upper decorated with alternating sunken squares and oblongs, the lower by a key pattern. The lower border on the bottom panel carries a single dogtooth or chevron moulding on its upper side.

C (broad): The head has a bold border moulding surrounding part of a cruciform decoration, which consists of flat bosses in the arms linked by a bar to a central ring surrounding a boss. A small fragment of the boss from the lower arm survives at the top of the upper shaft fragment. Below, framed laterally and above by a bold arris, is a meander pattern set over a further ornament whose only surviving element is an inverted V (? frame). The lower fragment is divided into two panels. The upper carries a pattern F knot linked to a pattern E terminal, whilst the lower panel consists of two crossed strands ending in small bosses and bound by a ring. The lower frame of this panel is elaborately dogtoothed on its upper side.

D (narrow): The end of the arm is surrounded by a moulding frame and decorated with a raised diamond shape, set on end with raised triangles above and below. This decoration of linked diamond shapes continues though the upper shaft fragment and into the upper panel of the lower fragment, though there is a horizontal moulding border at the bottom of the upper fragment. Below the plinth-like moulding which divides the two panels on this lower fragment is a simple two-strand twist. As on face B there is a single dogtooth or chevron moulding on the upper side of the lower border. All the lateral borders are formed by roll mouldings.

The links between this shaft and Whalley 3 have long been recognised (Ills. 675–8; Brown, G. 1937, pl. CIII, 1–2; Bailey 1980, 187); the re-assembly of a third shaft from Anderton/Hollowforth, perhaps originally from Preston, adds a third member to the group (Ills. 396–404), and other fragments from both Whalley (no. 2, Ills. 671–4) and Bolton le Moors itself (no. 7, p. 269) are clearly also related (see Chapter V, p. 37, and Table 4). With one or all of those carvings, Bolton le Moors 1 shares: bold border mouldings; a shouldered profile; a squared block base separated by a plinth-like moulding from the rest of the shaft; large bosses on the shaft; pointed arches; runs of diamond shapes; dogtooth moulding; key patterns; and a free-armed 'penannular' head (for the latter see Chapter V, p. 33). The metallic origin of many of these features is discussed under Whalley 3 (p. 247). Apart from the range of parallels between this shaft and Whalley 3, there is one further link to a Whalley carving: the simple open twist at the base recurs again on Whalley 7 (Ill. 688).

With Anderton it shares the use of closely similar key-pattern symbols to decorate the base panel of the shaft (Ill. 404). Since analogous forms of fret occur at Isel in Cumbria, on the Isle of Man and in Aberdeenshire, it is likely that this pattern carried a symbolic function (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 374; Kermode 1907, no. 72; Ritchie, J. 1911, fig. 2).

The decoration on face C of the head is a version of the popular ""lorgnette"" motif first isolated by Collingwood (1913; 1927a, 94–8). This was already well established in Anglian sculpture on both slabs and crosses in the pre-Viking period (see Heysham 3, p. 200). In the subsequent tenth and eleventh centuries one form of the motif was heavily exploited in the Cumbrian 'spiral-scroll' school, whilst others can be found in Cumbria at Penrith and Kirkby Stephen — and across the Pennines at sites like Forcett, Gilling West, Gainford and Aberford (Bailey and Cramp 1988, fig. 7, ills. 410, 489; Lang 2001, ills. 250, 272, 274; Cramp 1984, pl. 67.327; Coatsworth 2008, ills. 5, 7). The relatively rare ornament of five bosses on the other face of the head is discussed under Cheadle 1 (p. 61); it may reflect Irish influence.

None of the decoration on the head is chronologically significant. Its penannular form, however, is a type which is popular in western Yorkshire and eastern Cheshire and Lancashire in the Viking period (see Chapter V, p. 33). Characteristic of the same period is the binding ring on face C (Bailey 1980, 71–2), whilst its combination with two crossing strands is clearly related to a similar motif on the Viking-age shaft, Disley Lyme Hall 1 (Ill. 131). The battlement pattern of face B belongs to the same chronological horizon.

Tenth or eleventh century

Allen and Browne 1885, 355; Langton 1885, 34; (—) 1886c, 341–3, fig. on 342; Allen 1886, 328; Browne 1887a, 11–12, pl. I, figs. 1–4, 7–9; Jackson 1889, 32; Scholes 1892, 76–81, figs. 1, 2; Allen 1894, 4, 9, 15, 17, 20, pl. IV; Allen 1895, 135, 142, fig. on 142; Harrison 1896, 4; Taylor, H. 1898, 43; Burnett 1900, 178; Taylor, H. 1904, 81, 144–5, pl. facing 144; Garstang 1906, 264–5, fig. on 264; Taylor, H. 1906, 474–5, pls. facing 474, 476; Ditchfield 1909, 120, pl. facing 120; Farrer and Brownbill 1911b, 237; Wickham 1915, 172; (—) 1918a, 95; Collingwood 1926b, 379; Collingwood 1927a, 89; Collingwood 1929, 46; Brown, G. 1937, 274–5, pl. CIII (1); Green, C. 1941–2, 119; Tupling 1948, 6–7; Pevsner 1969a, 15, 79; Taylor, H. M. 1970b, 281; Edwards, B. 1978a, 55; Edwards, B. 1978b, 128; Bailey 1980, 187; Edwards, B. 1983, 9, fig. 7a; Fellows-Jensen 1985, 407; Tindall 1986, 85, fig. 2; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 31, 109, 118, 121; Edwards, B. 1988c, figs. 4, 5, 6; Edwards, B. 1989b, 26; Edwards, B. 1992, 58; Crosby 1998, 30; Edwards, B. 1998, 80–1, 83, fig. 40; Hartwell et al. 2004, 18, 137, fig. on 138; Noble 2005, 13, fig. 5a

[1] The following are general references to the Bolton le Moors stones: Langton 1885, 34; Allen 1894, 4, 9, 15, 17, 20. The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37550, items 580 (showing no. 1), and 583–4 (other fragments 'discovered when the parish church of Bolton was taken down a few years since, from a sketch by John Owen of Kennedy Grove, Stockport who watched the demolition of the church').