In situ on east side of south doorway, inside the porch. The plant ornament on the west face and the third unit of interlace to the right are only visible obliquely within two recesses.

Exposed at the 1870 restoration with the removal of the old porch (Rowe 1870, 240)

All Saints

Fairly worn

A (broad, south) : The edge moulding is worn and encloses a panel containing three registers of encircled pattern D interlace in thin modelled strand. Single pellet fillers are inserted within the spandrels between one register and the next. The loose strands merge into the corners of the panel.

D (narrow, west) : The perimeter moulding, double at the top, is modelled and contains a panel with two registers of plant-scroll. The left-hand scroll is damaged but has shootlets extending beyond the roundel. Between the scrolls is a node from which spring the scroll stems on either side of an upright stem crowned with a worn berry or bud. The right-hand scroll contains a triangular feature which was either a berry bunch or a triangular split leaf. A pair of shootlets extend into the corners of the panel. The stem is well modelled and the cutting is deep.

This carefully carved and decorative impost indicates an important church on the site in the late eighth century. There is a nearby parallel built into Ripon Minster (Ill. 1197; Collingwood 1915, 233–5, fig. e), to which Kirby Hill may have been attached. The place clearly continued as a cemetery site through to the Viking Age.

Late eighth to early ninth century

Rowe 1870, 240, 241, fig. 4; Browne 1880–4, cxiii; Browne 1883, 187; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Allen 1891, 170 (1), 243; Hodges 1894, 201; Morris, J. 1904, 212; Collingwood 1907, 269, 270, 277, 284, 286, 287, 292, 338, 343, figs. d–e on 339; Thompson 1908, 114; Collingwood 1912, 122, 124; Page, W. 1914, 370; Collingwood 1915, 267, 272, 278, 287; Stapleton 1923, 5, 7, 9–1, 18, ills. 3, 9; Brown, G. B. 1925, 205, 463; Collingwood 1927a, 109; Clapham 1930, 49; Morris, J. 1931, 212; Collingwood 1932, 48; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 224; Pontefract and Hartley [1936], 126; Mee 1941, 125; Taylor and Taylor 1965, I, 355–6, fig. 157; Pevsner 1966, 210; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 50; Adcock 1974, 112, 118n, 146–7, 156n, pl. 48; Taylor 1978, 1054; Bailey 1980, 45, 79; Jewell 1986, 99; Morris, R. 1988, 191–2; Fellows-Jensen 1995, 177; Muir 1997, 97

[1] The following are general references to the Kirby Hill stones: Lunn [1867], 13; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Allen 1890, 293; Bulmer 1890, 734; Hodges 1894, 195, 201; Morris, J. 1904, 212, 420; Thompson 1908, 113; Stapleton 1923, 7, 10, 53; Morris, J. 1931, 212, 417; Pontefract and Hartley [1936], 126; Mee 1941, 125; Taylor and Taylor 1965, I, 355; Pevsner 1966, 210; Morris, R. 1989, 161; Muir 1997, 96–7.

[2] The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to no. 12: BL Add. MS 37554 no. XVI, items 82–3 (Romilly Allen collection).