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Object type: Part of slab
Measurements: H. 21.5 cm (8.5 in); W. 24 cm (9.5 in); D. 8 cm (3.25 in)
Stone type: Pale red (5R 6/2), medium- to coarse-grained (0.3 to 0.6 mm, but mostly medium-grained between 0.4 and 0.5 mm), sub-angular to sub-rounded, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. Chester Pebble Beds Formation?, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 115-16
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 70
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Upper part of slab, including broad flat border moulding and part of the right border; decoration in low relief on one face only.
A (broad): Beneath the border is a ring-headed cross with wedge-shaped arms and a flat boss, formed by an incised circle, at the centre; only the upper arm survives intact and this carries a flat boss. The ring, which is not continuous, is formed by three parallel mouldings and there is a small boss on the outer moulding where it meets the cross-arm. The upper and left arms carry an incised T (tau cross) whose stem touches the central boss.
E (top): Plain
This little slab was clearly elaborately decorated, the small boss on the ring giving the appearance of a metalwork appliqué sheet held down by rivets (compare the Insular cross and reliquary fragments in Webster and Backhouse 1991, nos. 135–8). Ring-headed crosses on slabs are not a familiar pre-Conquest type in northern England; this example may reflect forms more prevalent in Ireland and western Scotland (Lionard 1961; Fisher 2001, 36–8).
