Leeds Cross

The Leeds cross is a collection of fragments of probably tenth-century stone sculpture that has been reassembled into a cross. The fragments were found in the fabric of Leeds Parish Church when the tower of the old church was demolished in 1838. The architect, Robert Chantrell noticed a collection of carved stones built into the medieval architecture, some of them forming the cross.[1] Representations of the four Evangelists appear between distinctive interlaced decoration dating to the 10th or 11th centuries.[1] The cross currently stands within the church and is an important example of Anglo-Saxon sculpture. It is also the most complete example of a number of depictions of the legendary smith Weland and Beaduhild, the mother of his child, from tenth-century Yorkshire.[2][3][4]

The Leeds Cross.
  • Leeds Cross, face A (north face).
  • Leeds Cross faces A (wide face, orientated north) and B (narrow face, orientated west).
  • Leeds Cross, faces B (narrow face, west) and C (broad face, south).
  • Leeds Cross, face D (east face).
  • Leeds Cross, panel Ai (north face, top panel). The upper third of the panel is a modern reconstruction, and the cross at the top may not originally have belonged to the shaft.
  • Leeds Cross, panel Aii (north face, second panel from top), depicting a holy figure. The left-hand half is a modern reconstruction.
  • Leeds Cross, panel Aiii (north face, panel 3 from the top).
  • Leeds Cross, panel Aiv (north face, bottom panel), depicting a figure with a sword on the right hand and a bird on the left shoulder.
  • Leeds Cross, panel Ci (south face, top panel). The ornament above the figure is a modern reconstruction. The cross may not originally have belonged to the shaft. The figure is of a holy man.
  • Leeds Cross panel Cii (south face, second from bottom), depicting a holy figure. The top-right quarter is a modern reconstruction.
  • Leeds Cross panel Ciii, depicting Weland/Vǫlundr (below, strapped into wings, with tools at his feet) holding Beaduhild/Bǫðvildr (above, at a right angle to Weland). The bottom left quadrant is a modern reconstruction.

References
  1. Linstrum, Derek (1969). Historic Architecture of Leeds. Oriel Press. p. 6.
  2. Entry in the online Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture.
  3. Robert Halstead, 'The Stone Sculpture of Anglo-Scandinavian Yorkshire in its Landscape Context' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2016), pp. 203-28.
  4. James T. Lang, ‘Sigurd and Weland in Pre-Conquest Carving from Northern England’, The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 48 (1976), 83–94.
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