EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 



Anglo-Saxon Sculpture 



BEFORE the Norman Conquest Norfolk formed part of the kingdom 

 of East Anglia which was converted to Christianity by FeHx the 

 Burgundian in the reign of King Sigebert {circa a.d. 630), and 

 episcopal sees were established at Dunwich ' and Elmham.^ The 

 pre-Norman Christian monuments now in existence in Norfolk belong 

 to a much later period, none of them being probably older than the tenth 

 century. Examples have been recorded at the following places : — Cringleford, 

 Norwich, Rockland All Saints, and Whissonsett. 



During the progress of some extensive alterations made at Cringleford 

 church in 1898, six fragments of Anglo-Saxon sculpture were discovered — two 

 forming part of the staircase leading up to the roodloft and the remainder 

 built into the south wall. The fragments are of hard sandstone. The largest 

 measures 3 feet i inch long by i foot li inches wide at the top, and 8 inches 

 wide at the bottom by 5I inches thick, and the rest vary from i foot 2 inches 

 to 7 inches wide and from 1 1 to 7 inches long and average 6 inches in 

 thickness. The largest fragment and two of the smaller ones have been fitted 

 together so as to form one half of a recumbent ^ cross-slab, the remainder 

 of which has been reconstructed in outline. This restored slab is now fixed 

 in an upright position against the west wall inside the church. The three 

 other fragments (which are also preserved in the west wall, but on the north 

 side) appear to be portions of a second sepulchral cross-slab, similar to the 

 restored monument. The design in both cases consisted of a cross, with 

 expanded ends to the arms, extending the whole length of the slab, and having 

 panels of four-cord plaitwork on each side of the shaft. These fragments have 

 been described and illustrated by the Rev. T. S. Cogswell in a paper 'On 

 some Ancient Stone Fragments found in Cringleford Church,' in Proc. Norf. 

 and Norw, Arch. Soc. xiv, 99.* 



Two pieces of a recumbent cross-slab of the same type as those at 

 Cringleford were found about the year i860 at Rockland All Saints church 

 — one beneath the pavement of the porch, and the other amongst the soil 

 which had accumulated round the foot of the tower on the south side. The 



1 On the coast of Suffolk between Southwold and Aldborough, called Domnoc by Bede in his Eccl. Hist. 

 ii, 15. 



* Probably North Elmham between East Dereham and Fakenham, in Norfolk. 

 ' i.e. the original position of the stone lying on the grave. 



* Three more fragments of cross-slabs have since been discovered (1905) in the course of repairs to 

 the chancel. Two of them belong to a slab, with a crosshead having expanded ends to the arms, like 

 that at Rockland, and plaitwork panels on each side of the shaft, and the third i> probably part of the 

 upper end of a more elaborate slab. Information from Rev. T. S. Cogswell. 



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