The Corpus: West Kirby 01

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: West Kirby 01, Cheshire

Overview

Object type: Part of shaft [1]

Measurements: H. 29.5 cm (11.5 in); W. 31 > 27 cm (12.25 > 10.5 in); D. 23 > 21 cm (9 > 8.25 in)

Stone type: Pale red (5R 6/2), medium- to coarse-grained (0.2 to 0.8 mm, but mostly coarse-grained in the range 0.5 to 0.6 mm), sub-angular to sub-rounded, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. Helsby Sandstone Formation?, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 345-8

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 133-4

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Present Location

Charles Dawson Brown Museum, West Kirby

Evidence for Discovery

Found during demolition of the early church in 1869 and then placed in the grounds of the Rectory (Smith, H. E. 1870, 270–1; Brown, C. 1885, 40; Thacker 1987, 289). Ecroyd Smith locates the discovery of most of the West Kirby stones as between the former south wall destroyed in 1788 and the pillar which marked the line of the pre-1788 south arcade (Smith, H. E. 1871a, 21).

Church Dedication

St Bridget

Present Condition

Much of faces C and D have been lost.

Description

A (broad): At the base is a plain border moulding whilst a cable-moulding arris survives to the right, flanking knotwork of turned pattern A with added outside strand.

B (narrow): A plain lower border moulding and flanking cable mouldings enclose the termination of knotwork of spiralled half pattern A with bar terminal.

C (broad): Traces of worn cable moulding survive to right and left, flanking a simple intertwined double oval.

D (narrow): Plain lower and worn flanking cable-moulding borders enclose fragments of a four-strand plait.

Discussion

Collingwood (1928, fig. 5) illustrated this shaft as reversed from the above description; the tapering dimensions suggest that he was wrong to do so. The fragment is presumably part of a shaft, though Collingwood'speculated that it might be the neck of a lost cross (ibid., 18). Like other carvings in the Wirral at Neston and Chester St John it uses bold border mouldings. The plain plait and double oval pattern suggest a late Saxon date. The other patterns are ones which, in both half and full versions, do occur in the pre-Viking period at Cundall/Aldborough and Ripon (Lang 2001, ill. 161; Coatsworth 2008, ill. 673) but are also well evidenced in the tenth and eleventh centuries (Cramp 1984, pls. 23.115, 125.694, 189.1048; Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 34; Lang 1991, ill. 536; id. 2001, ill. 763).

Date

Tenth century

References

Smith, H. E. 1870, 270–1; Smith, H. E. 1871a, 22–3, pls. I, II; Smith, H. E. 1871c, 12–13, pls. I, II; Rimmer 1875, 96–7, fig. on 97; Allen and Browne 1885, 355; Brown, C. 1885, 40; Browne 1887b, 148; Sulley 1889, 225; Allen 1894, 32a, pl. XIV; Allen 1895, 135, 150, 153, 174, fig. on 168; Collingwood 1928, 18, fig. 5; Bu'lock 1959, 11; Edwards, B. 1992, 59

Endnotes

[1] The following are general references to the West Kirby stones: Smith, H. E. 1870; Smith, H. E. 1871a; Smith, H. E. 1871b, 125–6; Smith, H. E. 1871c; Ormerod 1875–82, II, 486; Brown, C. 1885, 40; Browne 1887b, 146–7, 148; (–) 1888a, 94; Jackson 1889, 37; Allen 1895, 135; Cox, E. 1895, 241; Young 1909, 211; Sylvester and Nulty 1958, 14; Chitty 1978, 8; Randall 1984, 23, pl. 7; Thacker 1987, 279, 289; Austin 1999, 82; Jesch 2000a, 6; Harding 2002, 134–6; Griffiths 2006, 156; Griffiths et al. 2007, 404. The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37547, items 117–18, 736–40 (Romilly Allen collection).