The Corpus: West Kirby 02a-b

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: West Kirby 02a-b, Cheshire

Overview

Object type: Part of cross-head in two joining pieces [1]

Measurements: H. 41.5 cm (16.25 in); W. 26. 5 cm (10.5 in); D. 12 cm (4.75 in)

Stone type:

a (smaller fragment): Pale red (5R 6/2), fine- to coarse-grained (0.2 to 0.6 mm, but mostly medium-grained in the range 0.4 to 0.5 mm), sub-angular to sub-rounded, clast-supported, quartz sandstone.
b (larger fragment): Similar, but slightly coarser with grains up to 1.0 mm across, and one angular brown pebble 1 cm in diameter. Helsby Sandstone Formation?, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 349-51

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 134

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Present Location

As West Kirby 1

Evidence for Discovery

As West Kirby 1

Church Dedication

St Bridget

Present Condition

Now in two conjoining pieces and very worn on face C; Cox's late nineteenth-century drawing suggests that rather more may once have survived (Allen 1895, 168). The narrow faces B and D have been cut away.

Description

A (broad): The fragment consists of two adjoining arms, together with the central area, of a circle-head cross with unpierced spandrels. At the centre is a heavily worn boss whilst two smaller bosses survive in the spandrels. Remains of triquetra decoration fill the arms; this ornament is framed by moulding borders to the spandrels. The most complete arm has the remains of a crossing circle, probably carrying a moulding flanked by framing roll-moulding borders. The 'ears' of this arm protrude fragmentarily beyond the circle.

C (broad): Within a moulding frame there are faint traces of a central boss, together with clearer evidence for two of the spandrel bosses and some indications of triquetra decoration, set within moulding borders, in the arms. No trace of the circle is visible.

Discussion

Circle-head (see Chapter V, p. 31). Within the circle-head group the combination of unpierced spandrels with armpit bosses and triquetra decoration in the arms is found on West Kirby 3, Hilbre Island 1 and Chester St John 1, 2, 4 and 5, as well as Whitford in north Wales (Ills. 75–84, 89–99, 172–5, 352–3; Nash-Williams 1950, no. 190, pl. XXXIV). Circle decoration formed by a simple moulding recurs on West Kirby 3, Chester St John 2 and at Whitford.

Date

Tenth century

References

Smith, H. E. 1870, 271; Smith, H. E. 1871a, 26, pl. V; Smith, H. E. 1871c, 15, pl. V; Brown, C. 1885, 40; Browne 1887b, 148; Sulley 1889, 225; Allen 1895, 135, 143, 174, fig. on 168; Collingwood 1926a, 329; Collingwood 1927a, 82, 143; Collingwood 1928, 12–15, fig. 2; Nash-Williams 1950, 129; Bu'lock 1959, 6, 10; Thacker 1987, 279; Edwards, B. 1992, 59; Gelling 1992, 187; Bailey 1996b, 30; Jesch 2000a, 9; Bailey 2003, 223

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).