Appendix B item (stones wrongly associated with pre-Conquest period)

Possible headstone. 'Front of upper step at the south end of the base' (Radford 1956, 7). First recorded by Radford, who described it as a single slab of stone set on edge, 'with rounded angles ... the side now uppermost spreads out at the base, giving an original width of 2 feet 3 ins ... There is no trace of decoration on the exposed face'.
The present length of the stone now in that position fits Radford's measurements but the width dimension does not (L. 150 cm (59 in), W. 28 > 26 cm (11 > 10.25 in)). Early photographs show that the present stone was in this position in the early twentieth century, and Hawkes (2002, 24–5), on the basis of plans drawn in the 1950s before the removal of the St Mary stones from the Market Square monument, shows that it has not been moved since.
Radford (1956, 8) in discussing this stone claimed that 'Headstones of this type, some with a slightly ornamented border, are recorded from the Saxon monastery at Whitby, and elsewhere. They were monuments marking the graves of important persons and originally carried painted inscriptions'. His comparison is with a carving, recently re-published by Lang and interpreted as part of a chair (Lang 2001, ills. 1079–83). The parallel is not convincing and I see no reason to accept this as an Anglo-Saxon monument. Date uncertain.