Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire
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Current Display: Eccles (Barton Ship Canal) 1, Lancashire
Overview
Object type: Part of shaft [1]
Measurements: H. 63 cm (25 in); W. 38 > 34 cm (15 > 13.5 in); D. 16 cm (6.5 in)
Stone type: Greyish orange-pink (5YR 6/2), fine-grained (0.1 to 0.2 mm), clast-supported, quartz sandstone; grains sub-angular to sub-rounded. Coal Measures?, Carboniferous
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 451-3
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 173-4
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Present Location
Against the chancel arch of St Mary's church, Eccles
Evidence for Discovery
Found in 1889 during the formation of the Manchester Ship Canal at a depth of about 17 feet (5 m) below the surface; the precise site is described as being 'at the point where Salters Lane leads from the Eccles Market Place down to a very ancient ford over the river Irwell' (Taylor, H. 1906, 436). By 1906 it was in Owen's College Museum, Manchester, later re-designated as Manchester Museum (Taylor, H. 1906, 5; Wickham 1915, 172). Before 1928 it had been transferred to Eccles parish church (Green, C. 1941–2, 118). Garstang (1906, 264), confused by reports giving different find-spots, erroneously recorded that there were two fragments from this area.
Church Dedication
Present Condition
Face C is currently inaccessible but is noted as 'worn away' in early descriptions. Face D is set close to a wall and cannot be photographed.
Description
Faces A, B and D are bordered laterally by a roll moulding.
A (broad): Two parallel strips of ring-encircled twist
B and D (narrow): Meander pattern
C (broad): Lost
E (top): Sub-rectangular socket hole
Discussion
Both ring-encircled patterns and meander patterns are typical of Viking-age work in northern England (Bailey 1980, 71–2). Parallel strips of ornament are a feature of north-western coastal sculpture in the same period: examples can be found stretching from Meliden in Flintshire through Bromborough and Halton to Cumbrian coastal sites at Waberthwaite, Plumbland, St Bees, Beckermet St John, Gosforth, Dearham and Great Clifton, as well as Fardenreoch in Ayrshire and Govan on the Clyde (Ills. 38, 39, 466, 742; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 57, 95, 100, 110, 142, 146, 152, 158; Anderson 1926, 268; Bailey 1994, 117).
Date
Tenth century
References
Allen 1894, 4, 5, 17, pl. 1; Allen 1895, 136–7, fig. on 137; Taylor, H. 1898, 43; Taylor, H. 1904, 106, pl. facing 106; Garstang 1906, 264; Taylor, H. 1906, 5, 436, pls. facing 436, 476; Collingwood 1907a, 359; Ditchfield 1909, 120, pl. facing 118; Farrer and Brownbill 1911a, 364; Wickham 1915, 172, 173; Wallis 1932, 39, 40; Green, C. 1941–2, 118; Tupling 1948, 3, 6; Johnston 1958, 14; Pevsner 1969a, 15, 108; Bu'lock 1974b, 170; Edwards, B. 1978a, 58–9; Edwards, B. 1983, 8–9; Kenyon 1991, 118; Edwards, B. 1992, 58; Bailey 1994, 117; Hartwell et al. 2004, 182–10; Blair 2005, 310; Noble 2005, 24, fig. 15b; Salter 2005, 310
Endnotes
[1] The following are unpublished manuscript references to Eccles 1: BL Add. MS 37550, items 703–4 (Romilly Allen collection).
