Platform at west end of north aisle, at base of column with nos. 1 and 2

See Ramsbury 1. 'Lying a short distance below the ground against the foundation of the [eastwall of the south aisle]' ((––––) 1891). According to Goddard (1894, 44) this shaft had to be sawn in half and broken into pieces in order to remove it from the ground.

Holy Cross

Reconstructed from three fragments

Complete panels surrounded by fragmentary flat-band mouldings chiselled away at the base.

A (broad): One complete serpentine beast enmeshed in irregular loops of median-incised interlace. Its body is contoured and decorated with incised chevron patterns. The body coils from the tail at the base, and its head at the top penetrates the body. The head, viewed from above, is divided by single chevrons and has two sharply drilled eyes.

B (narrow): One complete reptilian animal; its body coils from a thin tail which is a strand of interlace and broadens into a loop, terminating in a snub-nosed head shown in profile biting its own body with sharp teeth. Its eye is sharply drilled and back-pointed, and its body is decorated with a single row of chevrons where narrow and a double row as it widens. The body is tightly fettered with loops and knots of median-incised interlace, which terminates at the top with two pattern E knots, and between the coil with lobed tendril-like ends.

C (broad): Rows of three turned pattern C knots repeated in five registers, the top terminating in small pattern E knots.

D (narrow): Four registers of pairs of turned pattern C knots with median-incised strands.

This piece and Ramsbury 2 belong to the ribbonanimal group which is discussed in the introduction, p. 42. Its interlace types are identical with those from Dolton in Devon (Ill. 22), but these reptilian animals on faces A and B are very different from the beasts on that cross, and indeed from any others, although the animals on the shaft from Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, are the closest both in composition and body patterning (Tweddle et al. 1995, fig. 10c–e; see Ill. 547). The composition is full of writhing life, and the savage biting at their own bodies, as well as the fetters and chains with which they are tightly bound, give these creatures a demonic appearance. If one is to see a religious significance in these panels then it must surely be as evil forces bound.

Ninth / tenth century

(––––) 1891; Stewart 1891, 97–8, fig. 1; Allen 1894, 56–8, 63, 64, figs. (A) facing 57, fig. (A) facing 64, pl. (A) between 64 and 65; Goddard 1894, 44; Browne 1903, 155–6, fig. 3; Browne 1906, 248, fig. 4; March 1913, 9, 13, fig. C; Smith 1913–14, 70–1, figs. 10, 11; Brøndsted 1924, 126; Clapham 1930, 127, pl. 54; Cottrill 1931, 30–1, 36, fig. 8; Cottrill 1935, 145, 146, 149, 151, pl. XVII.1; Brown 1937, 94, 283, 285, 286, pl. CXII; Kendrick 1938, 145, 211–12, 214, pl. C; Rice 1952, 127, 137–8; Stone 1955b, 38; Fisher 1959, 80, pl. 36a; Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966, 106; Pevsner and Cherry 1975, 377–8; Tweddle 1983, 18; Plunkett 1984, I, 182, 190, 191, 194, 196, 218, II, 283, 304, 363, no. IV, pl. 73; Wilson 1984, 108, 146, ill. 135; Fuglesang 1986, 220, pl. 22; Graham-Campbell 1987, 150; Tweddle 1992, 1147; Tweddle et al. 1995, 37–8, fig. 10b; Bailey 1996, 20–1; Cramp 2001, 158, fig. 1c; Croucher 2005, 7, ill. (c)

[1] The following are general references to the Ramsbury stones: (––––) 1891; Baber 1891; Stewart 1891, 94; (––––) 1893–4, 120, and fig.; Browne 1894, 275; Goddard 1894, 49; Webb 1894, 90–1, and pl.; (––––) 1902a, 237, ill. on 239; Browne 1903, 155–8; Browne 1906, 247–9, pl. 3; Peers 1926, 53; Collingwood 1927, 183; Clapham 1930, 127, 129; Cottrill 1931, 29–30; Gardner 1951, 42; Stone 1955b, 37, 38; Pevsner 1963, 15, 332; Taylor 1963, 169; Taylor and Taylor 1963b, 249; Jope 1964, 99, 104; Taylor and Taylor 1965, II, 502–3; Pevsner and Cherry 1975, 17; Cramp 1978, 11; Ball 1979, 38; Cramp 1980, 7; Haslam 1980, 1; Tweddle 1983, 18; R.C.H.M.(E.) 1987, 12; Tweddle 1991a, 239, 242; Cramp 1992, 151, 155, 228, 264; Tweddle 1992, 1147; Hicks 1993, 205; Cramp 2001, 158; Croucher 2005, 2, 6–8, 43, 64, 73.