The Corpus: Prestbury 3

Volume 9: Cheshire and Lancashire

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Current Display: Prestbury 3, Cheshire

Overview

Object type: Fragment [1]

Measurements: Not recorded

Stone type: Red sandstone' (Renaud 1876)

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 238

Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 97-8

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Present Location

Lost

Evidence for Discovery

About the year 1841 when a part of the chancel wall was being taken down...amongst the mass of displaced masonry was a piece of red sandstone, with rude chain tracery carved on one face' (Renaud 1876, 39). This appears to have been lost by 1876 when it was described as: 'a small fragment of a mortuary cross preserved until recently at Prestbury, and figured in the drawing' (Renaud 1876, 74 and fig. facing 71).

Church Dedication

St Peter

Present Condition

Unknown

Description

The surviving drawing in Renaud (1876, fig. facing 71) shows two parallel rows of ring-encircled right-angled crossings which are connected to each other horizontally.

Discussion

This form of decoration, sometimes described as 'buckle knot', recurs in single form on Whalley 8 and is also invoked in the confusion of ornament on Prestbury 1 (Ills. 230–1, 691). It represents a right-angled version of the familiar Viking-age sculptural motif of the ring-encircled crossing.

Date

Tenth or eleventh century

References

Renaud 1876, 39, 74, fig. facing 71; Browne 1887a, 14; Taylor, H. 1906, 80

Endnotes

[1] The following are unpublished manuscript references to Prestbury 1 and 2: BL Add. MS 37547, items 730–5 (Romilly Allen collection).