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Object type: Socket-stone [1][2]
Measurements:
L. 135 > 84 cm (53 > 33 in); W. min. 50 > 41 cm (19.5 > 16 in)
[Only part of the width is visible, but since it does not protrude on the internal side of the east wall of the chapel, the total W. cannot exceed 100 cm (37 in)]
H. Uncertain; socket: 45 x 43 cm (17.75 x 17 in), 9 cm (3.3 in) deep
Stone type: Greyish pink (5R 8/2) poorly sorted, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. The sub-angular to sub-rounded clasts range from medium-grained (0.3 mm) to very coarse-grained (1.5 mm), but are mostly coarse-grained in the range 0.5 to 1.0 mm. Ward's Stone Sandstone Formation, Millstone Grit, Carboniferous
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 530-1
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 206-7
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Only part of this stone is now visible. It may be cut out of, but remain still part of, the ground rock. The socket is roughly squared (indeed has a near-rounded profile on the east face) and tapers inwards towards the top. The rectangular socket hole is now partly buried within the east wall of the chapel.
Dr R. Trench-Jellicoe has noted that the proportions of the socket hole would be appropriate to the shaft, Heysham 1. The importance of this stone is that it is overlaid by phase 2 of the chapel (see Potter and Andrews 1994, figs. 14, 23, 29). Unfortunately this phase cannot be closely dated, other than to a period after the ?eighth-century phase 1 building. Its position on an axis line to the east of the phase 1 chapel can be paralleled by other such axial church/socket alignments at sites like Lindisfarne (Blair 1991; id. 2005, 199–200).
[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).
