In churchyard to south of nave, set in socket (Whalley 13 below).

As Whalley 1 above

St Mary

Worn on narrow edges and damaged on the upper part of face A of the lower fragment

3a. Lower shaft

A (broad, east): The shaft has a marked entasis, and 8 cm (3 in) from the top it narrows on both edges in a concave form so that the upper width matches the dimensions of fragment 3b above. Halfway up the shaft the lateral framing borders curve inwards, the edges cut back at this point to leave a run of dogtooth mouldings providing a second, outer, bordering to the upper part of the carving. The upper third of this face carries a central vertical moulding flanked on either side by single zigzag mouldings; these zigzags terminate, somewhat angularly, at the bottom, the left-hand example overlying the vertical element. Immediately below are four shallow V-shaped curves, with rounded terminals, nested within each other. The lower part of the shaft is dominated by a bold flat boss on which is set a further flat and hollowed boss. This feature is placed centrally, above a collar, at the apex of two curved mouldings which fall away on either side to link to the border mouldings. Springing from the flat boss and flanking the curved mouldings are stripped spiral-scrolls. Within the bottom frame defined by these mouldings are three connected spirals topped by a curving offshoot.

B (narrow, north): This face carries a single panel of ornament, framed by a bold roll-moulding border. Half way up the fragment these arris mouldings join to form an arched head to the panel, and are then linked to a single vertical moulding running centrally up through the rest of the shaft, which narrows on this side at that point in order to accommodate the dogtooth mouldings on the broad east face. This vertical moulding terminates at the upper end in a flat cup-like form. Within the arched frame, now very worn, are six diamond shapes, set one above the other, each carrying a small boss. This ornament terminates at the top in a flat disc and, at the bottom, in a triangle or half diamond.

C (broad, west): This face has the same inward curving profile to its lateral roll-moulding borders at the top as on face A. On the left edge, half way up, there is dogtooth moulding outside the moulding frame but the border does not curve inwards as markedly as on the east face. The right-hand border is somewhat damaged in its upper sections but lacks any visible dogtooth moulding and only has minimal inward curving on the border moulding. At the centre of this face of the shaft is a flat boss carrying a hollow boss which Browne (1887a, pl. II, fig. 2) showed as filled with a cruciform arrangement of small pellets. Above it runs a bold vertical moulding stretching to the top of the surviving shaft, whilst below it are two mouldings curving away to join the borders. The vertical moulding is flanked by stripped spiral-scrolls springing from its base, in which just two rounded foliate/fruit forms can be distinguished. The lower part of the shaft, beneath the hollow boss, is divided into two frames by mouldings which curve out to join the arris from a centrally placed flat boss; Browne (1887a, pl. II, fig. 2) shows this boss as topped by a hollowed trefoil. The upper frame contains a stripped, and somewhat irregular, spiral-scroll which takes on a bush-like form; in the bottom left corner the scroll terminates in a hollowed triangle. Within the lower frame is a triangular fret motif terminating centrally in a hollowed arrow-like form.

D (narrow, south): The border mouldings around the single panel at the bottom of the shaft, and the vertical moulding topped by a cup-like form, are organised as on face B. Within the frame is a stripped spiral-scroll springing from the left-hand corner of the frame.

3b. Upper shaft and head

A (broad, east): The top of the shaft carries all the motifs already identified on this face of the shaft: central vertical moulding flanked by a zigzag motif (terminating here in rounded forms) together with dogtooth moulding cut outside the flanking borders. The central vertical bar runs into the roll moulding which encloses the surviving lower and (partial) upper arms of the cross (type B10). The only decoration on this face is a small rounded boss set on a flat boss which is itself set on a broader flat boss with sloping sides.

B (narrow, north): The only visible decoration is on the shaft which carries the continuation of the central vertical moulding seen on the lower fragment; this runs up onto the lower edge of the cross-head.

C (broad, west): The remaining fragment of shaft shows a continuation of motifs already identified on the lower fragment: central vertical moulding flanked by stripped scroll together with dogtooth moulding outside the border to the left but not to the right. The head was surrounded by a roll-moulding border which, at the bottom of the surviving lower arm, crosses the vertical moulding from the shaft; this latter continues up to the centre of the head. At the centre of the head is a bold and complex composition consisting of a conical boss, surrounded by a circular moulding, which is itself topped by a further small boss. A series of modelled animal forms are set around the boss, their heads looking in towards the centre. They have splayed front and rear legs.

D (narrow, south): The only decoration to survive on this face is the rounded termination of the central vertical moulding seen on the shaft; this runs up to the lower edge of the head.

This is a boldly baroque monument, innovative in its overall design; though often ill-balanced, it has an ambitious and demanding shape. Edwards (B. 1998, 78) has rightly emphasised that in aspects of its layout and choice of motifs it is closely related to two other Lancashire stones, Bolton le Moors 1 and Anderton 1; it is now clear that Bolton le Moors 7 and Whalley 2 can be added to this interlinked set (see Chapter V, p. 37, and Table 4). With one or all of them it shares: heavy roll-moulding borders; chevron arches; stripped scrolls, fleur-de-lys terminals; raised diamond decorations; key pattern forms; dogtooth moulding; and vertical mouldings running up the narrow face (Ills. 396–404, 409–412, 671–4). All appear to have had free-armed heads.

The treatment of the upper edges on the broad faces is unique, with raised dogtooth mouldings forming a second border on a different plane outside the arris moulding. Such elaborate decoration of the edges is not familiar in pre-Norman carvings, though there are analogies within a group in south Yorkshire, at Thrybergh, Rawmarsh and Barnburgh, together with Castle Hedingham in Essex (Ryder 1982, 103, 117, 121; Brown, G. 1937, 142–9, pl. XL). All of these appear to be post-Conquest in date and there is an inevitable temptation to assign this Whalley sculpture to the same period, despite its use of stripped-scroll forms. The use of raised dogtooth moulding, so popular a theme in Norman architecture, might also be invoked to point in the same chronological direction (compare Lang 2001, 279). And further reinforcement of a post-Conquest context for the cross might seem to come from the use of a fleur-de-lys terminal (Edwards, B. 1978b, 128). Discussion of the latter motif on the closely related shaft Anderton 1 has, however, shown that its occurrence can readily be reconciled with a pre-Norman date (pp. 162–3). And the following examination of the dogtooth moulding leads to a similar conclusion.

The dogtooth moulding on this cross is best understood in the context of a series of metalwork-derived techniques and motifs employed on the sculpture. This background can readily be seen in the bold inverted V-mouldings, capped by bosses, which divides ornament on the main faces. Though these have been associated with the decorative organisation of the so-called 'round-shaft derivative' group of crosses (Kendrick 1949, 76; Bailey 1980, 187), this seems unlikely, for in that group the triangular 'scallops' are usually set in the middle of the shaft, not at its corners. A more plausible origin for this division of fields lies in the same metalwork sources as were drawn on by the Sandbach crosses (p. 25), in which angle elements set at corners helped secure sheets to a wooden base (see Rix 1960; for metalwork examples see: Mac Dermott 1955; Henry, F. 1970, pl. 41; Wilson, D. M. 1984, ill. 124). As at Sandbach, so also the large bosses on the Whalley shaft are equally echoic of metalwork, as they seemingly hold the curving rib decoration in position; comparisons can be drawn with a series of metalwork pieces dating from the ninth through to the eleventh centuries (Tassilo chalice, Pentney, Beeston Tor and Fuller brooches, Canterbury and Sutton, Isle of Ely, brooches — Webster and Backhouse 1991, nos. 131, 187, 245, 257; Wilson, D. M. 1964, no. 10; Backhouse et al. 1984, no. 105). Similarly the bosses on the linked and raised diamonds of face B recall rivets, whilst the diamonds themselves (also found on Bolton le Moors 1, Ill. 412) are a familiar decorative device in metalwork: see the Strickland brooch and Clonmacnoise plaque (Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 189; Bourke 1993, 177, a and b). The zoomorphic ornament around the boss on the west face probably draws on similar sources; like the analogous animals on the large boss of the Kildalton cross, it recalls the disposition of the beasts dividing panels on the eighth-century Steeple Bumpstead boss (Fisher 2001, 138, fig. on 49; Youngs 1989, no. 140; id. 1993).

The seemingly 'Norman' decoration of dogtooth moulding provides another example of a metalwork-derived motif because such well-known pieces as the Cuthbert pectoral cross, Tostock buckle and Alfred jewel all use triangular mouldings to hold plates in position (Battiscombe 1956, pl. XVI; Hinton 1974, 31, pl. XI). This sculptured serrated moulding is thus indicative of technique rather than of date.

Concern with the origins of forms should not, however, blind us to the Christian symbolism of the decoration. The upper part of face C is essentially formed of a curving base which leads to a multi-level boss from which springs a vertical shaft; this shaft crosses the lower border of the head and terminates in an elaborately decorated boss. A stripped scroll emerges, to right and left, from the same multi-level boss. Together all these elements form a cross, set on a triangular base and flanked by scrollwork, whose composition recalls the theme of the flowering cross on Calvary hill. The best known realisation of this motif is in the apse of S. Clemente in Rome, based on early Christian models, where the accompanying inscription makes clear its symbolism: 'This vine shall be a symbol of the Church of Christ, which the Law makes wither but which the cross brings to life' (Kane 1978, 102–11). In Anglo-Saxon England there is a close parallel at Kirkdale (Lang 1991, ill. 558) which also sets the shaft on a round base, placed above a mound. In this context it is perhaps worth noting that a disc base to the cross was particularly popular in Byzantine areas: a good example with flanking scrolls is provided by the reliquary of the true cross from Limburg on the Lahn of c. 960 (Rice 1959, pl. 124), whilst the general composition is often used in work of the Middle Byzantine period on funerary sculpture (Richardson, H. 1995, 185, fig. 5; Evans and Wixom 1997, 37). The west face of the Whalley cross is thus dominated by an image of the Tree of Life, a multi-valent symbol of the Church, and both of God's bounty and generosity, and of Christ's sacrifice and its Eucharistic re-enactment (O'Reilly 1992). A similar treatment can be found on face C of Anderton 1 (Ill. 400).

It is possible that the other broad face also carried Christian symbolic forms. The scheme could be seen as consisting of a branching tree, flanked by two zigzag shapes; comparison with a carving at Farnell in Angus suggests the (probably remote) possibility that this is a Fall scene (Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, fig. 232b). Was the symbolism of the cross one of the tree which brought the Fall evoking the Tree which brought life?

The only indication of date is supplied by the stripped scroll. This is characteristic of Viking-period ornament.

Tenth or eleventh century

(See Whalley 1 above); Whitaker 1800–1, 31–3, pl. IV facing 31; Whitaker 1818, 49–51, pl. IV facing 51; Baines 1868–70, II, 8; Whitaker 1872–6, I, 66–7, 69, 71, II, 15, 557, pl. facing 1; Allen and Browne 1885, 355; Browne 1885b, 156–7, pl. IV; Allen 1886, 328; Browne 1887a, 12–13, pl. II, figs. 1–4; Scholes 1892, 80–1; Allen 1894, 9, 21; Allen 1895, 143, 150, 156; Burnett 1900, 178, fig. on 178; Taylor, H. 1900, 19, pl. facing 18; Taylor, H. 1904, 145; Taylor-Taswell 1905, 100–3, pl. facing 101; Garstang 1906, 265, pl. facing 264; Ormerod 1906, 212–17, pl. facing 212; Taylor, H. 1906, 4, 75, 79, 475, 485, pl. facing 78; Ditchfield 1909, 115–16, pl. facing 112; Browne 1916, 51; (—) 1921a, 190, pl. facing 190; Wallis 1921, 12; Collingwood 1927a, 107, 158, fig. 132 right; Brown, G. 1937, 274, pl. CIII; Kendrick 1941b, 17, pl. VIIb; Kendrick 1949, 76, pl. XLVIII (2); Rice 1952, 134, pl. 29a; Pevsner 1969b, 16, 258, pl. 6; Bagley 1970, pl. facing 16; Taylor, H. M. 1970b, 281; Edwards, B. 1978a, 73; Edwards, B. 1978b, 128; Bailey 1980, 187, pl. 5; Cramp 1984, 246; Hall and Lang 1986, 73; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 31, 109, 121; Edwards, B. 1989a, 6, 7, 8, figs. 1, 3–5; Edwards, B. 1989b, 25–7, fig. 2; Kenyon 1991, 99, pl. 8; Lang 1991, 19, 153, 177; Edwards, B. 1992, 58; Bailey 1996b, 42, pl. 4, fig. 7; Crosby 1998, 30, pl. III; Edwards, B. 1998, 78–80, 83, fig. 39; Reeder 1999, 21–2, fig. 15; Hadley and Richards 2000, frontis.; Lang 2001, 119; Bailey 2003, 235–6, figs. 15, 16; Hawkes 2003b, 279; Higham, N. 2004a, 45, fig. 16; Noble 2004, 76, fig. 92b; Salter 2005, pl. on 6; Bailey 2009, 27

[1]. The following are general references to the Whalley stones: Whitaker 1800–1, 31–2, 33, 37, 297; Whitaker 1818, 49–51, 250; Baines 1831–6, III, 178–9, 383; Baines 1868–70, II, 8; Whitaker 1872–6, I, 69, 71, II, 15, 157, 557, pl. facing 1; Croston 1884a, 4–5; Croston 1884b, 3; (–––) 1885b, 228; Allen and Browne 1885, 355; Browne 1885b, 156–7; Browne 1887a, 12–14; Jackson 1889, 34; Glynne 1893, 79; Harrison 1896, 4; Howarth 1899, 9; Farrer and Brownbill 1911c, 355; Fishwick and Ditchfield 1909, I, 5; Wallis 1921; Brown, G. 1937, 274; Tupling 1948, 6, 8; Edwards, B. 1975; Edwards, B. 1978a, 72–5; Fellows-Jensen 1985, 407; Edwards, B. 1992, 58; Panikkar 1994, 20; Crosby 1998, 30; Noble 2004, 75–81.

The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37550, items 724–35; BL Add. MS 37551, items 76–9; Lancashire Record Office, DP 291/61–62 and 292/1; Lancashire Record Office DP 386/8.