The Corpus: Ripon 11

Volume 8: Western Yorkshire

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Current Display: Ripon 11, West Riding of Yorkshire

Overview

Object type: Fragment

Measurements: H. 20.5 cm (8.1 in); W. max. 9 cm (3.5 in); D. max. 7 cm (2.8 in)

Stone type: Sandstone, pale yellowish brown, coarse to very coarse grained, quartzose, with white kaolinite patches throughout. Carboniferous (Millstone Grit Group). [G.L.]

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 645-6

Corpus volume reference: Vol 8 p. 241

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Present Location

Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate

Evidence for Discovery

See Ripon 5. This fragment, although grouped together with Ripon (cathedral, St Peter and St Wilfrid) 5 and 6 by the museum, is not described by the excavator, so it is in effect unprovenanced (Hall and Whyman 1996, 149, fn. 158).

Church Dedication

St Peter and St Wilfrid

Present Condition

Worn

Description

This could be the vertical edge of a cross-shaft, but it could also be a horizontal edge of an architectural piece.

A (broad): All that survives is a cable moulding inside a flat border.

B (narrow) and C (broad): All other sides are broken away but tool marks indicate preparation for reuse.

D (narrow): There is a trace of a double flat moulding at one end of this face.

Discussion

Too little survives for certainty, but the cable edging could suggest a sculpture of similar date to Ripon 2, 5 and 6. Tweddle (1996, 129) thought it might be a fragment of an impost rather than of a cross-head, and therefore likely to be of tenth- to eleventh-century date, possibly even post-Conquest, by analogy with other imposts of the same form. However, it could possibly be a fragment of a cross-shaft.

Date

Possibly late seventh to eighth century

References

Hall and Whyman 1996, 149, fn. 158; Tweddle 1996, 129, cat. 3, pl. IV, E

Endnotes

[1] The following are general references to the Ripon stones: Allen 1890, 293; Collingwood 1932, 48; Brown 1937, 95; Mee 1941, 306; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 16; Lang 1991, 17, 84; Hall 1995, 15; Hadley 2000a, 235.