IV.—The Nunburnholme Cross and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in York

Abstract

In 1915 Professor W. G. Collingwood completed his survey of all the Anglian and Anglo-Danish sculpture in Yorkshire. The Addenda to York published then added three fragments to the twenty-four ‘certainly or probably local to the city’. Since then, the grand total of twenty-seven has at least trebled. The main sources for this spectacular increase are the demolition of, and subsequent excavations on the site of, the church of St. Mary Bishophill Senior in 1963–4, and the much larger operations at York minster, begun in 1966 and recently completed. A full catalogue of the latter must await the completion of the excavation report. Finds to the southwest of the river Ouse appear in a recent inventory of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. Further sculptures were found in Newgate5 and All Saints, Pavement. The material for consideration grows steadily, and it is now clear that York was an important centre for sculpture before the Norman Conquest. This paper is limited to consideration of the later Anglo-Danish sculpture, which involves presentation of recent discoveries and reassessment of some of the sculpture described by Collingwood. It also includes a reassessment of the Nunburnholme cross, which provides parallels for many of the features of York sculpture, and is now no longer an isolated work. As there is much new material to be considered, the individual carvings will be listed and briefly described, beginning with the Nunburnholme cross, which serves as a key to the different elements.