Set above Halton St Wilfrid 1 in a composite cross constructed in 1890/91; see Halton (St Wilfrid) 1 above, and Fig. 20 and Ill. 464.

First recorded in 1886 when it was lying near the main shaft in the churchyard; arrangements were then made to move it to a place of greater safety (Allen 1886, 335). In 1887 it was loose in the porch (Browne 1887a, 10). It was placed in its present position by W. S. Calverley in 1891 (Calverley 1899a, 184, 185); he claimed that it had 'been lying long in the churchyard, having been brought from Caton, to which it had at some time been carried away'.

St Wilfrid

Heavily worn on west face

A (broad, west): Parts of two panels survive, flanked laterally by a cabled moulding. (i) In the upper scene is a half-length winged and haloed figure beneath an arch; the arch is decorated with pellets within a frame and has slab capitals. Details of the figure are now very worn, but most of the body is covered by a rectangular (presumably book) form whilst the haloed head appears to face to the right and has an animal head with almond-shaped eye and stubby muzzle; a moulding runs from the halo and around the shoulders. (ii) A horizontal moulding separates this scene from the one below which is topped by another arched frame. Within this there is a ?haloed human head; the remaining features are very worn but seem to include a cross to the left and perhaps a hand to the right.

B (narrow, south): Parts of two arched panels survive, flanked laterally by a cabled moulding; both arches have slab capitals. The panels are divided by the horizontal base of the upper arch. (i) The upper panel carries within its frame the haloed head and shoulders of a figure carrying a rectangular object (presumably a book); a moulding runs from the halo and around the shoulders. The head, which has pricked ears, appears to be facing to the left and is non-human. (ii) Beneath the arch in the lower scene is the top of a medallion scroll, the main strands crossing to terminate in pointed leaves to right and left, subsidiary strands dropping into the medallion below.

C (broad, east): Two panels set in arched frames are visible, flanked laterally by a cabled moulding and divided by the horizontal base of the upper scene; both arches seem to carry slab capitals. (i) The upper panel contains the head and shoulders of a haloed bird-headed figure facing to the right which holds a rectangular object (presumably a book) across its chest. A moulding runs from the halo and around the shoulders. (ii) Below is a further arch, also with slab capitals, containing the head and part of the shoulders of a boldly-carved human figure, haloed and seen three-quarters turned to the left. The eyes, mouth and cheeks are particularly well marked.

D (narrow, north): Parts of two panels survive set in arched frames and flanked laterally by a cabled moulding. The scenes are divided by the horizontal base of the upper scene. Both arches may have been decorated with pellets set within borders. (i) The upper panel contains an arched frame, with slab capitals, in which is placed a haloed and forward-facing bust of a figure holding a book across his chest; a moulding runs from the halo and around the shoulders. (ii) The arch below contains the crossing stems of the top of a medallion scroll with leaves or berry bunches falling to left and right, flanking a vertical stem topped by a heart-shaped leaf.

Like almost all of the Halton carvings, this fragment is bordered by a cabled moulding and the individual scenes are enclosed within an arched frame, with slab capitals, which is decorated with pellets (see Chapter IV, p. 21).

The four faces carry zoo-anthropomorphic symbols of the Evangelists; the significance of this arrangement with its symbolism of carrying the gospel to the four corners of the earth is discussed under Hornby 3 (p. 215). It is difficult to distinguish the precise forms of the animal heads on faces A and B, but it is clear that the symbol on face D is that of a man whilst that on face C is that of a bird. The latter must be the symbol of St John and, since the symbol of St Matthew is on the north side the Jerome sequence must have been read in an ante-clockwise direction around the monument. If so, Luke's symbol seems to have been more calf- than bull-like.

The shoulders and upper body of the symbols are all surrounded by a moulding which closely resembles that enclosing the bodies of figures on nos. 3, 5 and 9 from the same site; face A of Halton (St Wilfrid) 1 carries an angular version of the same motif (Ills. 465, 469, 481, 483, 489, 499). On all of these carvings this 'Halton outline moulding' could, in theory, represent either a chair or wings. Attached here to half-length Evangelist symbols, however, it must represent wings. This view is supported, firstly, by the fact that the mouldings are offset on face A to reflect the fact that the beast is turned to the right and, secondly, by the clear parallel offered by the attachment of halo and wings on the angel of Hornby 1 (Ill. 549). This 'wing' interpretation is also likely for its other Halton occurrences: the angel with book on nos. 3 and 5 is thus distinguished from the depiction of Christ the Judge on no. 3 which lacks this detail yet appears to show the figure as seated (Ills. 481, 483, 489).

Zoo-anthropomorphic symbols of the four Evangelists in Insular art have been much discussed in recent years (Kitzinger 1956, 229–48; Werner 1969; id. 1981; McNally 1971; Cramp 1978b; Nees 1978; id. 1987, 146–52; Cronin 1995; Hawkes 1995b, 251–2, 264–5; Brown, M. 1996, 87–115; id. 2003, 346–70; Henderson and Henderson 2004, 148–50; Ó Carragáin 2005, 143–6). From these studies it is clear that the motif is very rare in Irish sculpture whilst in Scotland there are no more than three examples in stone (Ó Floinn and Fanning 1985; Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, figs. 239A, ?264A; Henderson and Henderson 2004, ill. 215). By contrast, within Anglo-Saxon sculpture, the use of these symbols, appearing on their own without an accompanying Evangelist, is a persistent theme, though it is realised in a variety of forms.

The particular type seen here at Halton, in which the beast is shown half-length, but equipped with wings, halo and book, derives from sixth-century Mediterranean sources in which the symbol emerges from a cloud (Kitzinger 1956, 230–1). There are a few English pre-Viking stone carvings in which analogous half-length symbols can be found, but most lack some or all of the accompanying attributes: Ilkley 1 is without wings; Wirksworth without wings or halos; Sandbach Market Square 1 without wings and with only one symbol haloed; St Andrew Auckland 1 probably without either wings or halo (Ill. 265; Coatsworth 2008, 63–4, ills. 337, 339–42; Hawkes 1995a, 251–2; id. 2002, 41–3, fig. 2.5; Cramp 1984, 37, pl. 3.7). In a different kind of variation, Hart 7 in Co. Durham even provides multiple wings which reflect the Revelation of St John IV, 6–8 (Cramp 1984, 95, pl. 82.417). Such diversity within the half-length group may be a reflex of available space or (see Hart) was designed to emphasise an apocalyptic function — or simply resulted from the use of earlier models which themselves varied in their completeness (e.g. the Gundohinus Gospels of 754, with books but lacking both halos and wings, or the Gospels of Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, without wings (Nees 1987, pl. 18; Hubert et al. 1969, pl. 211). Whatever the explanation, there is no clear evidence for an exact sculptural parallel surviving in Anglo-Saxon England for the Halton preservation of half-length symbols with all attributes, though a fragmentary symbol on a cross-head from Otley in Yorkshire may have been equipped in this manner (Cramp 1970, 62, Taf. 45.4; Coatsworth 2008, ill. 600). Cramp indeed would see the Otley carving as the source of the Halton composition; if so — and the boldly carved figure on the east face of the stone would support the case — then it has been fully adopted to a Halton architectural setting, and given a more formal pose with book placed across the body.

In Insular illumination the earliest of the completely equipped, half-length, symbols is in the late eighth-/early ninth-century Barberini Gospels (Alexander 1978, ill. 173). The type persisted into the tenth and eleventh centuries, appearing as stand-alone elements on the Brussels cross and in the Monte Cassino Gospels as well as in combination with a portrait of the Evangelist in other manuscripts (Backhouse et al. 1984, no. 75; Temple 1976, ills. 49, 51, 288).

It is thus clear from this survey that the Halton shaft stands virtually alone among sculptures in its ambitious preservation of the full complement of attributes. It also stands alongside the Ilkley 1 cross in setting each of these symbols in a separate frame on a shaft — though clearly the composition differs between the two, Ilkley placing its panels one above the other down a single face of the carving (Coatsworth 2008, ills. 337, 339–42).

The panels below the Evangelist symbols are all formed by pelleted arches, with slab capitals preserved on faces B and C. The surviving nimbed head and shoulders of the figure on face C is boldly carved and faces three-quarters to his right; in its ambitious pose it recalls the busts at Otley (Cramp 1970, Taf. 44). The worn panel on face A below the Evangelist symbol is inevitably difficult to interpret. Figures with crosses over their shoulder occur at Sandbach, Leek, Bakewell and possibly Hope where, with varying degrees of conviction, they can be interpreted as representations of part of a Calvary sequence (Ill. 267; Hawkes 2002, figs. 2.23, 5.4, 5.5; Routh 1937, pl. XVA). But those figures are seen in profile. More relevant perhaps is the full-face figure, with cross over right shoulder, seen at Chesterton in Staffordshire (Hawkes 2002, fig. 5.6); this is clearly a version of Christ in Majesty treading down the beasts (Psalm XC, 13). Closer still, because of the presence at Halton of a second feature (? rod) across the other shoulder, is the portrait of Christ in Majesty, treading down the beasts on Burton in Kendal 1 (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 82, ill. 180); these in turn are related to Irish Last Judgement scenes (Harbison 1992, i, 297–300). It is, of course, far from certain that there is a second rod to the right of the Halton scene, still less that the complete scene showed any beasts from Psalm XC. Nevertheless a full-facing figure carrying a cross is clearly a figure of triumph — see, for example, the Adventus Domini figure of the Turin Gospels, or the Second Coming and Judgement portraits in the S. Gall Gospels (Alexander 1978, ills. 206, 280).

The other two panels on the narrow sides carry the top of medallion scrolls whose forms recall those of the tree above Sigurd on Halton St Wilfrid 1 and perhaps also Lancaster St Mary 3 and Lancaster Vicarage Field 1 (Ills. 470, 577, 579, 603, 605).

Ninth century

Allen 1886, 335–7, fig. facing 334; Browne 1887a, 10, pl. VI, figs. 4–6; Allen 1894, 25; Allen 1895, 161; Calverley 1899a, 184, 185; Taylor, H. 1903, 79, pl. facing 78; Collingwood 1904a, 332; Garstang 1906, 266, pl. facing 266; Taylor, H. 1906, 371, pl. facing 370; Collingwood 1927a, 73; Pevsner 1969b, 136; Cramp 1970, 62, Taf. 48 (i); Taylor, H. M. 1970d, 287; Lang 1977, 91; Cramp 1978b, 126; Edwards, B. 1978a, 60; Cramp 1984, 46, 95; Cramp 1994, 109; Bailey 1996a, 7; Newman, R. M. 1996, pl. on 98; Hawkes 2002, 71; Hawkes 2003d, 366; Coatsworth 2008, 63

[1] The following are general references to the Halton stones: Allen 1894, 4, 8; Taylor, H. 1898, 42; Ditchfield 1909, 118–19; Curwen 1925, 30; Fellows-Jensen 1985, 402, 405; Noble 1999, 16; Blair 2005, 216, 309, 310, 463; Newman, R. M. 2006, 102. The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37550, items 602–13, 735; BL Add. MS 37551, items 66–71; Manchester Public Library, Hibbert Ware S. MSS: Msf 091 H21, vol. 5, 38; ibid., vol. 6, 40.