Set up as top of the cross-shaft in the churchyard west of the tower, below Cawthorne 2.

Discovered in a restoration of the church before 1882, found near the foundation of the 'late' chancel arch, on the south side (Pratt 1882, 68).

All Saints

Worn and weathered

The piece has a pronounced narrowing most noticeable on face C, which could suggest it is the end of a cross-arm of type B or D rather than the top of a cross-shaft.

A (broad): A double or triple moulding at the top and double roll mouldings at the sides. The inside of the face seems to have partly flaked away. Collingwood (1915a, 153, fig. c) shows this face with a chain of incised linking circles and semi-circles: only traces of what might be the edge of this pattern or an incised twist survive on the left.

B (narrow): There is now no trace of the delicate incised key pattern drawn by Collingwood (1915a, 153, fig. d).

C (broad): An incised outline at the top and sides, otherwise the face is quite plain.

D (narrow): As face C

Ryder (1982, 105) thought this was too small to be part of a cross-head, and suggested that the asymmetry noted above was probably a product of the original stone, with the panel borders following an irregularity. The restorers have had to create a very long tapering insertion in order to fit it between the remaining shaft Cawthorne 4 and the cross-head Cawthorne 2, however. I think it more likely this was a cross-arm, misinterpreted as the top of a tapering shaft by those who reconstructed the cross. Collingwood certainly doubted that it was part of same shaft as Cawthorne 4, but the fine incised work he recorded cannot now be seen. It has similar borders to Cawthorne 2 and 4, but if part of a cross-head implies one of very different form. Its mouldings and slight evidence of incised pattern are, however, not inconsistent with the other pieces from this site.

Probably tenth to eleventh century

Pratt 1882, 68; Innocent 1910, 92; Morris 1911, 151–2; Collingwood 1912, 121, 128; Collingwood 1915a, 152, figs. c–d on 153; Collingwood 1927, 178, fig. 223c–d; Collingwood 1929, 57, figs. c–d on 56; Mee 1941, 101, pl. facing 48; Pevsner 1959, 161; Ryder 1982, 90, 105, fig. ii on 106; Sidebottom 1994, 85–7, 237, no. 3, and pl.

[1] The following are general references to the Cawthorne stones: Morris 1911, 46; Collingwood 1915b, 335; Innocent 1914–19a, 248; Ryder 1982, 90, 125; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 133; Sidebottom 1997, 50; Hey c. 2003, 47.