Appendix B item (stones wrongly associated with pre-Conquest period)

Tapering grave-cover, found at St Eata's church, now outside the south porch, weathered and broken into two halves. Carved with a fairly high-relief, ring-headed staff cross, type B6. The arms of the cross are 'capped' with squared terminals that are wider than the arms themselves (cf. type A3). There is a rounded collar around the neck of the shaft. The shaft is flanked by two creatures standing rampant with their forefeet against the shaft. One creature had a rounded head (lion or leopard?) while the other has a long square jaw like a dog or wolf. The creatures stand on, or grow out of, columns of circular or slightly elliptical shapes, like a two-strand plait. The surface of this grave-cover is very heavily weathered and the details of the design are difficult to see. However, the ring-headed staff cross and the flanking rampant creatures seem to be more closely related to the developed heraldry of the thirteenth century and later than to Anglo-Saxon carvings.