A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



much later than the end of the eleventh century. The most ancient type of 

 recumbent slab found in Great Britain is of small size, rectangular in shape, 

 and more nearly approaching a square in its proportions than an oblong.^ 

 The slab was generally sculptured with an ornamental cross, and had the name 

 of the deceased inscribed on the background. Such tombstones were used to 

 mark the position of the burial place, but were not intended to indicate the 

 size and shape of the grave, as in the case of the later recumbent body-stones. 

 The sepulchral slabs of Norfolk, therefore, belong to the long and narrow 

 type of the recumbent monument which was prevalent in the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries, rather than to the short and square type of the eighth and 

 ninth centuries. The ornament on the Norfolk slabs consists exclusively of 

 plaitwork, indicating that the earlier and more elaborate forms of decoration, 

 such as knot-work, key-patterns, spirals, and zoomorphs, had quite died out in 

 consequence of the degradation of the Hiberno-Saxon style which set in after 

 the Danish invasions began in the ninth century and culminated with the 

 Norman conquest in 1066. 



The small erect cross at Whissonsett was probably sepulchral, although 

 it bears no inscription showing that such was the case. The form of the 

 cross is more Celtic than Saxon, the circular ring connecting the arms, and the 

 raised boss in the centre of the head, being features which are of common 

 occurrence on the early Christian monuments of Wales * and Cornwall.* Crosses 

 of very similar character to the one at Whissonsett have been found at 

 Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, and at Cambridge.* The ornament on the 

 Whissonsett cross consists of interlaced work only, and the patterns are either 

 simple plaits or are composed of Stafford knots. 



The Norfolk and Cambridgeshire crosses which have been mentioned 

 are probably of the same date ^ as the recumbent sepulchral slabs, and may have 

 been used as head-stones in connexion with them. 



The decoration of the broken cross-shaft from the site of St. Vedast's 

 Church, Norwich, now in the Norwich Museum, differs altogether from that 

 on the recumbent sepulchral slabs and erect crosses just described, as the 

 designs sculptured upon it are purely zoomorphic. The treatment of the 

 animals with the head bent back, the double outline to the body, and the 

 spiral curves where the limbs join the body, appear to be Scandinavian rather 

 than either Celtic or Anglo-Saxon. This would indicate that the Norwich 

 cross-shaft belongs to the middle period of pre-Norman art in Great Britain 

 just after the first of the Viking invasions, when the Celtic influence through 

 Northumbria was beginning to decline, but before the decadence of the style 

 had finally set in. The zoomorphs on the Norwich stone may be compared 

 with those on the monuments of the same age at Nunburnholm (Yorks.), 

 Hickling (Notts.), St. Alkmund's (Derby), and at Kirk Braddan and Kirk 

 Michael in the Isle of Man. 



The Saxon churches of Norfolk do not present any examples of archi- 

 tectural details sculptured with figure subjects or ornament. 



There are no pre-Norman inscriptions of any kind in Norfolk. 



1 J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbortsm, I lo, 1 16, and 123. 



^ J. O. Westwood, Lapidarium Walliae. s A. G. Langdon, Old Cornish Crosses. 



* Now in the museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society {Jrch. Joum. xi, 70 ; xii, 201). 

 ' i.e. the end of the pre-Norman period. 



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