Carved Stones

Below the tower, at the west end of All Saints Church in Ilkley is a display of carved stones, of various ages. The tall stones were carved during the Saxon period (late 8th century - early 9th century), and are intricately decorated with biblical themes or decorative scroll work.

Although the tallest shaft has a cross head on it, the head was not found in the same location as the shaft, so are unlikely to have originally been part of the same cross, but they do give a good impression of what a complete cross would have been like.

The oldest stones are Roman altar stones (one shown top left in this collage) and there are two of these behind the Saxon cross shafts. They have been much altered and reused over the centuries (as I explained yesterday).

Ian

[Peter H]

What a treasure! Great to see.

[Margaret Brown]

A wonderful history and photos

[carol white]

Lovely carvings and composition. Fav!! 😀

[Richard Sayer]

It's nice that these have been preserved as a link from the present to the past.

[gloria jones]

Nice captures with great details and lighting...These have such an interesting history.

[Pyrrhula]

A great collage of all the beautiful pic.`s of those historical stones.

[bruni]

Interesting collage of the historical stones and write up. fav.

[Larry Steager]

Nice composition.

[Casablanca]

What a super collection, most enjoyable. Sending your lovely Katharine a smile today and continuing to think of her and pray for her.

[Dione Giorgio]

That must be a very interesting place to visit - my type of museums. Very nice collage and thank you for sharing.

[Nina Ganci]

fascinating to see the rough ancient stone work against stain glass windows
Thanks for explaining the story behind the stones. Find it very intriguing indeed

[Fisher Family]

@peadar @craftymeg @carolmw @vignouse @seattlite @pyrrhula @bruni @larrysphotos @casablanca @sangwann @ninaganci

Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, which put this shot on the Popular Page.

I think it's wonderful that these stones have survived so long, and that it is still possible to understand some of the meanings of the images on them - like a message from 1100 years ago!

Ian

[Fisher Family]

@casablanca Thank you Casablanca, Katharine was in real need of encouragement earlier. Her mid line started leaking just as she finished her antibiotic infusion, so it's a trip to hospital tomorrow to have the mid line removed. It looks like it will be a trip to hospital each day for a few days to have the infusion, since it's hardly worth putting in a new mid line for less than a week of infusions. This certainly hasn't been an easy or straight forward process!

Ian

[Casablanca]

@fishers Oh the poor love. Tell her to hang in there. Less days ahead of her in treatment than she has already done. Will keep her in my prayers.

[Kathy A]

These stones are wonderful, lovely textures.
I hope Katharine is doing ok

[Fisher Family]

@kjarn Thank you Kathy, Katharine is slowly improving.

Ian