Lost

Along with Derby 13, this piece was reported–in a letter from Mr Henry J. Stevens of Derby that was read to the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1845, accompanied by drawings and casts–as found under the pavement of the church of St Alkmund during excavation work carried out in 1843–4 ((—) 1845b, 77). Both the stones and the casts, which were rejected by the Archaeological Institute and eventually donated to Derby Museum and Art Gallery (Radford 1976, 31), are now lost.

St Alkmund

Unavailable

This is one of a pair of imposts (see Derby 13) now only known from a drawing included in Stevens’ letter of 1845 ((—) 1845b, fig. following 76) which was reproduced by Cox (1879). Only two faces of the impost (A and B) were illustrated.

A: The illustration shows a form of triquetra design with two strands of interlace passing through it, below which is an area which appears to have been worn away so that its decoration is indistinct. To the right, on the corner of the impost, is an area deeply carved away around a tapered, round, column head which appears to have been quite narrow (possibly only c. 7 cm (2.75 in) in diameter) if Cox’s description of its measurements is correct. The column head is decorated with some form of narrow-stranded interlace (unclear) with a human head above it, reaching to the top of the impost.

B: This face is decorated with a Maltese cross with circular motifs on the arms and a thin moulding surrounding it. At the top left-hand of the impost, on the shoulder of the cross, is a square linear motif. The other shoulder of the cross appears decorated but is unclear.

C and D: Unknown

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

This piece was not mentioned by Routh (1937a; 1937b) in his description of Anglo-Saxon sculpted stones from Derby, and Radford (1976) called on the original illustrations submitted by Stevens in 1845, along with Cox’s description (Cox 1879), and Clapham’s discussion of the two pieces (1930, 124-6). As with Derby 5 (p. 169) there is no way to know how accurate the drawing may have been; it could have been an interpretation of a scheme of decoration which was difficult or impossible to decipher accurately, but the ring pattern on 13A/B and the incorporation of a human head over the angle-column on 12A/B is in keeping with general trends in post-Conquest sculptural capitals and imposts. The impost is thus unlikely to have been Anglo-Saxon and a Norman context seems more appropriate—despite its association with pre-Conquest activities by Stevens, Cox, Clapham and Radford, perhaps because both pieces were deemed to have ‘formed part of a comparatively small opening’ (Radford 1976, 45).

Probably eleventh to twelfth century

(—) 1845b, 77, figs. between 76–77; Bateman 1848, 206; Cox 1879, 122, 140, pl. V.e; (—) 1885b, 502; Browne 1886, 167; Le Blanc Smith 1904a, 195; Allen 1905, 281; Tudor 1927, 32, 46; Tudor 1929, 127; Clapham 1930, 124–6, fig. 39; Radford 1976, 44, 45, fig. 4(a–b); Sidebottom 1994, 149, 244 (Derby 10a/b)