The easternmost of two fragments built into the inside wall above the west door

Probably found during the church restoration of 1896 and to be identified as one of the 'several fragments of interlaced work of Saxon type which were found at the restoration embedded in the walls and rubble masonry. They are to be seen now, rid of the coating of plaster and whitewash, incorporated here and there in the wall near the main entrance' ((—) 1910, 205). Possibly among the 'stones carved with early Norman patterns ... worked into various parts of the building' noted earlier by Ormerod (1819, II, 415), and also part of the 'definite traces of Saxon work near the doorway' recorded by Glynne (1894, 121).

St Mary

Good

The decoration is flanked by narrow borders to right and left together with a broad flat border below. The deeply-cut relief ornament consists of two horizontal mouldings, set in line with each other, which divide at their terminations into backward-curving spirals ending in foliate forms.

This form of ornament is ultimately derived from a scroll. Many of the forms on Bruera 3 below are clearly related. In general it can be compared to the irregular spiralling forms of Cheadle 1 and Whalley 3 (Ills. 73, 675, 677).
Though Pevsner and Hubbard (1971, 118) seem to imply that this carving is Norman, the regional parallels listed above suggest that this fragment, now in secondary position, can be assigned to the late tenth or eleventh century.

Late tenth or eleventh century

?Ormerod 1819, II, 415; ?Allen 1894, 118; ?Glynne 1894, 121; ?Allen 1895, 135; (—) 1910, 205; Pevsner and Hubbard 1971, 118; Thacker 1987, 288; Baxter 2004b