The Corpus: Whalley 07

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: Whalley 07, Lancashire

Overview

Object type: Upper part of cross-shaft [1]

Measurements: H. 41.5 cm (16.5 in); W. 28 > 26 cm (11 > 10.25 in); D. 12 > 10 cm (5 > 4 in)

Stone type: Hard, yellowish grey (5Y 7/2), poorly sorted, clast-supported, medium-grained (0.3 mm) to very coarse-grained (2.0 mm), but mostly coarse-grained between 0.5 and 1.0 mm, quartz sandstone. The clasts, which vary from sub-angular to sub-rounded, are mostly quartz, but there are a few scattered feldspars. Millstone Grit, Carboniferous

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 686-9

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 250

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Present Location

Blackburn Museum; no accession details are available.

Evidence for Discovery

Browne (1887a, 14) described this stone as lying on the ground outside the south chancel wall. It may possibly be identified with the 'fragment of a shaft now in the vestry' noted by Wallis (1921, 11).

Church Dedication

St Mary

Present Condition

Faces B and D are heavily worn; much of C has been cut away.

Description

A (broad): The surviving shaft carries knotwork framed laterally by a flat moulding and, at the top, by a broad border. Though Edwards (B. 1989b) interpreted the somewhat worn remains of decoration as two ring-encircled crossing strands and a bar terminal at the top, my reading agrees with Browne (1887a, pl. VI, fig. 9) as half pattern A interlace.

B (narrow): Nothing survives apart from traces of lateral border mouldings.

C (broad): Traces of heavy crossing strands. Browne (1887a, pl. VI, fig. 8) shows two broad strands which cross twice and terminate at the top in inward-turning foliate forms.

D (narrow): As face B

Discussion

The ill-balanced broad-stranded knot on the main face is consonant with a tenth-century date. The simple twist on face C is matched on Bolton le Moors 1, a cross which is also linked to Whalley in other ways (Ills. 409, 412; see Chapter V, p. 37).

Date

Probably tenth century

References

Browne 1887a, 14, pl. VI, figs. 8, 9; Wallis 1921, 11; Edwards, B. 1978a, 74–5; Edwards, B. 1989b, 32–3, fig. 3 (J), Edwards, B. 1992, 58; Edwards, B. 1998, 86; Reeder 1999, 19, figs. 10, 11; Noble 2004, 79, fig. 95

Endnotes

[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.