20a. Inside church, at east end, by north and south entrances to crypt
20b. Standing on either side of the entrance into the church in the south porch

The columns were first described in situ in 1819 supporting the eastern sides of the arches at the east ends of the north and south walls of the nave (Dugdale 1819, 76). They were removed in 1854 when the rounded arches were replaced by pointed arches, but preserved, initially under the tower, then re-erected in the south porch. The bases were left, and remain in situ, being first noted during the removal of the late eighteenth-century (1792) flooring in the winter of 1885 (Cox 1886, 233–4). Taylor (1971, figs. 14–15; 1987, fig. 7) shows the column on the south side reconstructed with its capital, base and encompassing arch beside the top of the southern stairs to the crypt.

St Wystan

20a. Damaged but in generally good condition
20b. Good, with capital resting on uppermost drum of column

20a. Column bases and lower part of columns (Ills. 369–70)

Although Cox’s 1886 drawing shows the lower parts of the columns consisting of two drums resting on top of each other, the present remains consist only of single drums resting on rectangular bases, of a depth comparable to each other. The upper edges of the column remains are roughly broken in a manner compatible with that illustrated by Cox, and the surfaces have been much hacked. The bases stand on the original floor level of the eastern end of the church.

20b. Columns with capitals (Ills. 367–8)

Both west and east columns consist of nine drums each, well dressed, that are of the same diameter, showing no signs of entasis. The square capitals rest directly on the uppermost drum, with no sign of transition from column to capital. The capitals widen out from a single narrow roll moulding at the base, by means of a plain out-curved moulding, to the upper faces which are divided by grooves to form three narrow mouldings. Traces of gesso and red paint are preserved in the grooves between the mouldings.

These columns, present in a nineteenth-century illustration of the nave and chancel of the church by R.M. Gorham, a pupil at Repton School (Taylor 1989, fig. 2), indicate that they were originally constructed as a series of drums set one on top of the other as they currently survive, suggesting that they may have been derived from Roman fabric, but their capitals, squared and reeded, are not of Roman construction and likely represent Anglo-Saxon features of a date contemporary with the capitals set above the pilasters and columns in the crypt (Repton 19b–c). Like the central columns of the crypt they were also coloured, retaining traces of red on white polychromy, and so speak to the elaborate nature of the decorated interior of the church in its eighth- or ninth-century phase of construction.

?Mid ninth century

Davies 1811, 389; Dugdale 1819, II, 76; Haigh 1845, 450; Ashpitel 1852, 275; Bigsby 1854, 257; Cox 1877b, 435; Cox 1886, 233–4; Cox 1887, 78; (—) 1900–1, 202; Cox 1903a, 228; Hipkins 1907, 119; Cox 1912, 76; (—) 1914b, 389; Brown 1925, 384; Tudor 1927, 39–40; MacDonald 1929, 32; Fletcher 1951, 82–3; Radford 1961c, 243; Taylor and Taylor 1965, II, 514–15; Gilbert 1967, 98; Taylor 1971, 356–7, 376; Radford 1973, 135; Taylor 1987, 223–4, 234, figs. 7, 13, 15, 17; Taylor 1989, 11