Crowle Stone

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At the back of the Church of England parish church of St Oswald at Crowle in the English county of Lincolnshire, may be found the Anglo-Saxon sculpted Crowle Stone.

This was originally carved as a cross shaft and until 1919 it was used as a lintel over the west door. The preservation of the stone is almost certainly as a result of the Norman masons reusing it when the church was built in 1150.

The stone measures 6'11" (2.11m) in height 16" (400mm) thick and 8.5" (215mm) wide.

The stone is ornately carved on all three sides and at the bottom of one face there is a runic inscription which would date the cross shaft as being before 950 as their use had almost completely died out by then.

[edit] External links

  • Further information can be found at: [1]
  • A photo can be found here: [2]
  • Images of the stone can also be found in Durham University's Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture:[3]