East end of the nave, north side

See Brompton In Allertonshire 1 (St Thomas)

St Thomas

Complete and well preserved; tooling and crisp edges

A prominent ridge, tapering at each end and carrying ring-twist pattern (closed circuit pattern A) between plain mouldings, issues from the jowls of the end-beasts. The sides have a bombé plan and the roof pitch is curved.

A (long) : Below the ridge are three rows of type 1 tegulae, the lowest row being almost triangular, type 7. Below this is a horizontal cable moulding above four vertical panels of closed circuit four-cord plait in single strand. Each panel is flanked by plain mouldings, which in turn are separated from each other by spacing.

The end-beasts are naturalistic bears, with hatched 'fur', the jaws slightly apart but muzzled with a plain band, and small roundly modelled ears. Only the forelegs are depicted, the paw's five toes almost touching the base of the ridge. Their backs are slightly rounded and all corner edges are bevelled. Part of the belly is shown.

C (long) : As face A.

This monument is by far the finest and best preserved hogback. It is type a, the panel type, and its naturalism extends beyond the bear-like end-beasts with 'fur' to accurately depicted architectural details like the tegulae which have non-skeuomorphic parallels in shingles excavated at Trelleborg, Denmark, and in York (Schmidt 1973, 76, fig. 35; Lang 1984a, 93). The completeness and expertise embodied in this hogback have led to its illustration in a number of publications; however, Brompton has a variety of hogback types which display a range of carving skills, so it should not be assumed that all hogbacks share no. 17's quality. The inward-facing end-beasts are half-creatures, sculpted three-dimensionally, not mere zoomorphic head terminals; it is the sculptural plasticity which makes this series of hogbacks innovative in Anglo-Scandinavian stone carving (see Chap. IV, pp. 21–4).

First half of tenth century

Rowe 1877, 62, pl. facing 61; Collingwood 1907, 276, 286, 293, 300, fig. b on 298; Collingwood 1912, 116, 123, fig. b; Page, W. 1914, 431; Edwards 1924, 59, pl. facing 70; Collingwood 1927a, 168, fig. 205b; Clapham 1930, 140, pl. 58a; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 220, fig. 40; Schultz 1942, 28; Walton 1954, 72, fig. 3e; Stone 1955, 36, pl. 20b; Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966, pl. XLIIa; Lang 1967, 30–2, figs. 6, 7, pl. III; Schmidt 1970, 19, figs. 1, 6; Schmidt 1973, 69, fig. 27a; Lang 1984a, 99, 106, 118, no. 2, fig. 11b, pl. on 119; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 48, 108, 131; Lang 1991, 208; Schmidt 1994, 139, figs. 63, 70; Muir 1997, 107 and ill.

[1]The following are general references to the Brompton stones: (—) 1867–8, lxxxviii; Rowe 1870, 240; (—) 1871–2, xxiv; Greenwell 1869–79a, lx; Rowe 1877, 61–4; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; Browne 1885–6, 124, 128; Saywell 1886, 481; Allen 1887, 126, 386, fig. 28; (—) 1890–5a, viii; Haverfield and Greenwell 1899, 125–6; Bulmer 1890, 389; Hodges 1894, 195; Morris, J. 1904, 32, 84–5, 420; Bogg 1908, 28–32, ills. on 29 and 32; Page, W. 1914, 430, 431; Morris, J. 1931, 33, 86, 87, 417; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 219–20, 245; Mee 1941, 41–2; Fisher 1959, 89; Pevsner 1966, 90, pl. 8; Bailey 1980, 85, 100, 240, 252, 255, 265; Kerr and Kerr 1982, 38–9 and ill.; Morris, R. 1983, 7; Cramp 1984, 11, 30, 93; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 54; Lang 1988a, 14, 24, 56; Cambridge 1989, 378; Richards 1991, 80, 119, 124, ill. 81; Everson and Stocker 1999, 138; Stocker 2000, 205–6.
[2] The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to no. 17: BL Add. MS 37552 no. XIV, items 508–9 (Romilly Allen collection).