The Corpus: Heysham 07

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: Heysham 07, Lancashire

Overview

Object type: Part of grave-cover [1][2]

Measurements: L. 135 cm (53 in); W. 39 > 32 cm (15.25 > 12.5 in); D. min. 14 cm (5.5 in)

Stone type: Between pinkish and brownish grey (5YR 7/1), pebbly, poorly sorted, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. The sub-angular to sub-rounded clasts range from medium-grained (0.4 mm) to fine gravel (1.0 cm), but are mostly coarse-grained in the range 0.7 to 1.0 mm. A few fragments of white ?kaolinised feldspar and white quartzite. Ward's Stone Sandstone Formation, Millstone Grit, Carboniferous. (N.B. Much coarser than Heysham 6)

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 525

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 204-5

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Present Location

Set in ground to south of St Patrick's chapel, adjacent to Heysham 6

Evidence for Discovery

Not known. Possibly the lower half of the stone recorded by Whitaker (1823, II, 319), though see Heysham 6.

Church Dedication

St Peter and St Patrick

Present Condition

Only the lower part of the slab remains, now in two pieces; the decoration is heavily eroded.

Description

The remaining part of the slab carries the shaft of a relief cross which broadens below into a high base.

Discussion

The closest parallel for this form of high-based shaft is provided by Hexham 17, Northumberland (Cramp 1984, 183, pl. 181.971) which Cramp assigns to the eleventh century

Date

Uncertain; possibly eleventh century

References

?Whitaker 1823, II, 319, fig. on 319

Endnotes

[1] The difficulties of distinguishing between the original provenances of sculpture from this site have been emphasised by recent excavations (Potter and Andrews 1994, 104, and fig. 2). The following list therefore combines material from both St Peter's church and St Patrick's chapel.

[2] The following are general references to the Heysham stones: Robson 1850, 28; Jackson 1889, 33; Allen 1894, 4, 8; Micklethwaite 1898, 348–9; Taylor, H. 1898, 42; Howarth 1899, 9, 21; Nicholson 1899, 21; Grafton 1904; Ditchfield 1909, 117; Grafton 1909; Farrer and Brownbill 1914, 110; (–––) 1923, 288; Curwen 1925, 30; Collingwood 1927a, 15; Hogarth 1934; Bu'lock 1972, 67; Fellows-Jensen 1985, 402, 405; Crosby 1998, 30; Higham, N. 2004a, 27; Blair 2005, 216, 218, 309, 376, 457; Salter 2005, 42; Newman, R. M. 2006, 103.

The following are unpublished manuscript references: BL Add. MS 37550, items 617–46, 735–6; BL Add. MS 37551, items 72–5; Lancaster Public Library, no. PT 7; Manchester Public Library, Hibbert Ware S. MSS: Msf 091 H21, V, 64 (no. 5), 82 (no. 1); vol. 8, 98v. For the Hibbert Ware collection see Henry and Trench-Jellicoe (2005, 239–60).