POST MEDIEVAL SCULPTURE

1700

Head on plinth carved from local red sandstone. Well defined features, well carved. Uncertain whether male or female. Appears to be wearing a bonnet or hood that covers the ears and extends beneath the chin. The back of the bonnet is carved into a series of six horizontal 'rolls'. A necktie is tied in a bow beneath the chin. Uncertain function but is probably part of the common tradition of carving stone heads in the North of England which extends back, at least, to the Roman period and is still practised today. See Anne Ross 'Pagan Celtic Britain (Routledge 1967) and 'The Pagan Celts' (Batsford 1986). See also Sydney Jackson's