Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
Durham University, 2019. (updated 2020)
Data copyright © Durham University unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Durham University
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Durham
DH1 3LE
England
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 351
Overview
The resource presented here represents the culmination of a project that has run for over forty years involving numerous and different authors, team members and specialists. While the consistent format and grammar for recording has enabled us to provide a national online dataset that facilitates comparisons within and across regions, catalogue entries still retain levels of individuality in relation to the intellectual viewpoints of authors and contributors.
The resource is based on data gathered by authors from archival and library sources, antiquarian accounts and a comprehensive field survey in each region. A major structuring component of the project has been to ensure that authors collect and publish information in a consistent format. Data has therefore been gathered according to set principles laid out in The Grammar of Anglo-Saxon Ornament [1] and in relation to a number of key fields set at the outset of the project that include the evidence for discovery and present location. As many items reside in churches and churchyards around the country, the church dedication is also recorded. Monuments and fragments are described, discussed, and dated, its stone type identified, and notes are given on its condition at the time of recording. In many instances, multiple photographs are provided of the sculpture and sculpture fragments.
Photographic images, largely captured by the project team and authors are made available in high resolution suitable for publication.
In most instances, permission has been obtained for free online access to the images published, but there are exceptions. On occasion, you may find an item without accompanying illustrations where permission for the reproduction of images could not be obtained, where an item has been lost or where the team were prevented from photographing it and no other image could be obtained. Not all photographs that appear in the printed catalogues are available via this resource due to copyright restrictions. Copyright information, provided with each available image, must be cited if images are reproduced in any media.
As with any long-running project that has moved in its latter phases to digital release, there are always challenges in retrofitting data to an online format. In this resource, the pre-1970 county boundaries were used as a guiding principle, and data is published by region in the hard-copy volumes.[2]. The online resource allows users to search by the pre-1970s county name and by the region. However, at the outset, the project took the English-Scottish border as its northern geographic extent and as a result, some early sculptures from Scotland considered part of the Anglo-Saxon sculptural repertoire, such as the Ruthwell Cross, do not appear in the catalogues.
It is also important to note that the online Corpus is not exhaustive. The online catalogue entries are reproduced from the published regional catalogues that each comprise the known list of surviving stone sculptures at the time of publication. As a result, there are items of sculpture that have been discovered in each region since the print publication that do not appear in this resource. With such a long-running project, it is inevitable that new finds have been made subsequent to the regional publications. We have made a decision not to include these new finds in the online searchable catalogue at this stage.
As the catalogue entries are transcribed from the print volumes, there are many instances where readers are referred back to other entries or to chapters in that volume or to other catalogue entries within the series. In an online version, this kind of cross-referencing has been difficult to replicate but we have tried to ensure this cross-referencing is retained using page references to the hard copies and Harvard-style referencing to other volume entries. Digitised versions of the volumes are available to view.
In most instances, users of this resource will be able to use our entries as a guide to visiting and seeing the sculpture in person, however, users should be aware that in the intervening years, a number of items have been redisplayed or moved to new display locations, and sadly, some are now recorded as missing from their original location.
Copyright Disclaimer:
Every reasonable endeavour has been made to contact the copyright holders. Where this has not been possible, the copyright holders are invited to the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture (contact details are available in the menu).
- Cramp, R J, 1991. Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. Grammar of Anglo-Saxon Ornament. British Academy and Oxford University Press.
- Durham and Northumberland (I), Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North-of-the-Sands (II), York and Eastern Yorkshire (III), South-East England (IV), Lincolnshire (V), Northern Yorkshire (VI), South-West England (VII), Western Yorkshire (VIII), Cheshire and Lancashire (IX), Western Midlands (X), Cornwall (XI), Nottinghamshire (XII); Derbyshire and Staffordshire (XIII); Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire (XIV); East Midlands (XV); and Norfolk and Suffolk (XVI).
- Cramp, R J, Hawkes, J and Story, J, forthcoming. Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Volume XV. East Midlands. Oxford University Press for the British Academy.
