The Corpus: Whalley 14

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: Whalley 14, Lancashire

Overview

Object type: Double socket-stone [1]

Measurements: H. 42 cm (16.5 in); W. 126 cm (49.5 in); D. 79 cm (31 in); The empty socket is 37 x 32 cm (14.5 x 12.5 in) and 19 cm (7.5 in) deep

Stone type: Yellowish grey (5Y 7/2), moderately sorted, clast-supported, fine-grained (0.2 mm) to medium-grained (0.5 mm), but mostly medium-grained between 0.3 and 0.5 mm), quartz sandstone; scattered small flakes of white mica. Millstone Grit, Carboniferous

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 706-7

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 253-4

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Present Location

Socket for Whalley 4 in Whalley churchyard

Evidence for Discovery

See Whalley 1. The first clear indication of its use in the present location is provided by Latham's drawing of 1822 (see Whalley 13 above).

Church Dedication

St Mary

Present Condition

One of the two socket holes has been half cut away; the other now carries shaft Whalley 4. All of the Whalley shafts had seemingly been moved at least once in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but Whitaker claimed that all were 'durably erected on their original bases' in the early eighteenth century (see Whalley 1 above). However, since the fitting is covered in cement and the lower ornament of Whalley 4 has been lost, it is now impossible to establish whether this was the original setting for the cross. Taylor (H. 1906, 79) described this stone as 'an oblong stone base with holes at each end of it, which may have held two additional crosses or figures'. This suggests that there were three sockets. This must be an error since both Latham's drawing of 1822 and Weld's drawing of 1844 show the socket-stone as at present.

Description

The stone is roughly squared and the unfilled socket is half cut away.

Discussion

Double socket-stone (see Chapter V, pp. 37–8: there is no evidence that there were once three sockets on this stone as claimed by Taylor, H. 1906 and Garstang 1906 — see above). Haslingden 1 and Stretford 1 provide further Lancashire examples of this type of base (Ills. 506–7, 649–50), and there may have been others at Cheetham Hill and Rochdale (see discussion of Haslingden 1, p. 196). This double socket, like Haslingden, is a rare example of the type in that it apparently came from a churchyard.

Date

Tenth / eleventh century

References

(See Whalley 4 above); Garstang 1906, 265; Taylor, H. 1906, 79; Taylor, H. M. 1970b, 281; Edwards, B. 1976; Edwards, B. 1989a, 8, figs. 4, 5; Edwards, B. 1989b, 30, fig. 1 (F1); Edwards, B. 1998, 86; Reeder 1999, 21, fig. 14; Noble 2004, 76, fig. 92c

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.