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Object type: Part of a shaft
Measurements: H. 55 cm (21.5 in); W. max. 21.5 cm (8.25 in); D. Built in
Stone type: A heavily patinated (?worn), pale yellowish grey, poorly sorted, shelly oolite. Ooliths are mostly in the range 0.3 to 0.5 mm diameter, but some are up to 0.9 mm; shell fragments are up to 5 mm across and pick out the bedding. On the freshest surfaces, ooliths weather out to give an 'aero-chocolate' texture, but on polished surfaces, ooliths stand proud. Bath stone, Chalfield Oolite Formation, Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Pls. 221-2
Corpus volume reference: Vol 7 p. 152
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This seems to be part of a shaft which has been set sideways into the wall. As an upright shaft, the surviving fragments of moulding are on the right-hand side and the base. At the base is an animal with its body shown in profile, and this, although very worn, seems to have been contoured. Its front and back legs are enmeshed in jumbled strands of median-incised interlace, and its head, which is turned back to bite at a strand, is viewed from above. It has a long nose, its head is marked with two V-shaped lines which divide between its dotted eyes, and these are surrounded by back-pointed incisions. It has small rounded ears. Above this animal is a reptilian body with its tail tapering into median-incised interlace. Its body, which is contoured, is marked by small pellets at the tail end and at the wider part by incised chevrons filled with dots. Its head has been cut away, but there is a worn feature at the top which may have been part of another head. The carver seems to have lost his way in the interlace, which at two places bifurcates and finishes in a loose end.
This animal is part of the West Saxon lacertine group (see introduction p. 42): the head type, seen from above, is found also at Shaftesbury (Ill. 90), Rowberrow (Ill. 322), Tenbury Wells (Cottrill 1935, pl. XVI; see Ill. 547), and Abson (Plunkett 1984, I, 183, pl. 62), with closely related types at West Camel (Ill. 346) and Dolton (Ills. 21, 23). The chevrons and dots which decorate the body are also found on creatures at Dolton, but the variations in the uses of chevrons, pellets and dots need not signify significant links in the monuments. This is not the most competent work in the school — the stance of the lower animal is of a profile beast but the head is more reptilian, and the interlace is not just unruly but disorganised. Frome was a foundation of Aldhelm's and an important monastic centre, and Plunkett has suggested that monastic patronage is a possible context for all of the group; but see introduction, p. 47.
