A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



under the writer's observation of the shears occurring in association with 

 ornament which in all probability is anterior to the middle of the eleventh 

 century. 



Darlington. — In the fine church of St. Cuthbert are preserved the heads 

 of two pre-Conquest crosses. The larger one is complete and retains a part 

 of the upper portion of the shaft, showing that the head and shaft were all 

 worked out of one stone. Both sides are alike and have a raised boss in their 

 centres. The form of the head is Anglian, and is ornamented with a double 

 continuous band which, passing the boss, is carried into each of the four 

 arms, where it forms triquetras. The smaller fragment has lost two of the 

 arms. The raised boss is larger than in the other cross and the interlacing 

 band is single but similarly treated. 



Dinsdak. — Eight fragments of pre-Conquest crosses are built into the 

 walls of the porch of this church. Amongst them are two cross-heads, one 

 of which has two birds upon it, and the other interlacing designs. One 

 portion of a cross-shaft shows the lower part of a panel containing two human 

 figures. In the chancel is the greater part of a hog-backed stone of exactly 

 the same type as the stones found at Brompton in Allertonshire, Arncliffe in 

 Cleveland, and Sockburn. At either end is the large muzzled bear, while on 

 the sides are three separate square panels, each containing two pointed loops 

 interlaced.^ Along the top is a simple square fret. In the lower part of 

 each side is a semicircular-headed recess, which occurs on similar stones at 

 Brompton and Sockburn, and very conspicuously on that from Arncliffe ; * its 

 purpose has yet to be explained.* In the churchyard is the lower portion of 

 the shaft of a large memorial cross, fixed in the ground. It bears coarsely 

 executed interlaced designs on a large scale. On the side facing west is the 

 unusual feature of a compartment in the form of a heater-shaped shield, 

 containing a curious design with triquetra terminations and small isolated 

 bosses. A somewhat similar feature occurs on one of the stones at Sockburn. 



Lying near to this cross is a huge and rudely worked stone coffin with 

 its lid complete. There is little doubt that this is of pre-Conquest date. 

 The lid is slightly coped and along its ridge is a large plain cross in high 

 relief.* 



Durham. — In the city of Durham two distinct groups of pre-Conquest 

 stones have been brought to light. These groups are both of unusual 

 importance and interest and stand out in marked contrast to the other small 

 and isolated fragments which have been from time to time discovered, but 

 wliich have no connection with these two scries. The tradition which has 

 come down from Leland's time, of the bearers of St. Cuthbert's body bringing 

 with them a carved stone cross from Lindisfarne ' and setting it up at 

 Durham, no doubt rests on a foundation of fact, but the identification of this 

 particular cross with one in the wall of St. Oswald's chwrch must now be 

 regarded as an archaeological error of the last century. St. Oswald's church, on 

 the evidence of no less than five pre-Conquest crosses found in its walls 

 and vicinity, appears to have had a predecessor, at a date anterior to the 



1 Pro(. Soe. Ant'tq. Netvcastle-on-'Tynf, ix. 62. ' H.iverficld and Greenwell, op. clt. 126, No. Ixiv. 



' Canon GrccnwcU suggcsti that these recesses arc meant to indicate the doorways of man's last house, 

 which the hog-backed stone is believed to typify. 



* Hodges, Relijuary, New scr. p. 79. ' Symeott of Durham (Rolls Ser.), i. loi. 



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