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Object type: Shaft, slab or architectural fragment
Measurements: H. 47 cm (18.5 in); W. 25 cm (9.75 in); D. Built in
Stone type: Pale red (5R 6/2), medium-grained, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. Grains range from 0.3 to 0.6 mm, but are mostly in the range 0.4 to 0.5 mm; a few grains are up to 0.8 mm, with one quartzite 8 mm pebble noted. The grains, which are sub-angular to sub-rounded, are mostly quartz, but a few white quartzites present. Helsby Sandstone Formation, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 442
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 170
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The one visible face shows an angular four-strand flat plait.
Edwards (B. 1978a, 58) argued that this stone was not pre-Conquest but part of the heraldic fret of the Norris family. Given the presence in the church porch of further examples of similar angular plait, whose unworn strands are doubled, there seems no reason to reject a pre-Norman date for this carving. The only problem with this identification, common to all three fragments from this site, is the lack of moulding borders to the ornament. It seems unlikely that these would have been removed before being built into the present porch, though a parallel can be cited from Hougham in Lincolnshire (Everson and Stocker 1999, 186, ill. 215).
