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

Small weathered figure carved onto a quoin in the north-eastern buttress of the nave of St Peter's church. The figure is male, standing with legs apart. Dobson described him as a 'vigorous male', but the relevant portion of his anatomy that might support this euphemism is now missing (Dobson 1933, 270). The figure is cut onto the arris of the stone, so that his outstretched right arm is on the east face and his left arm, with hand on hip, is on the north face. He holds what appears to be a sling or balance-scales in his right hand, and his hair flies out sideways from the right side of his head. It is possible that this is not hair but a wing, and that the figure should be interpreted as an angel holding the scales of justice. If this interpretation is correct, the now missing 'virile member' might have been a sword. There is nothing about this little figure that suggests that it is Anglo-Saxon. As with many of these figures it is difficult to date precisely, but it is probably late medieval, perhaps fourteenth or fifteenth century.