<< Our Photo Pages >> St John the Baptist (Tunstall) - Early Christian Sculptured Stone in England in Lancashire
Submitted by Sunny100 on Wednesday, 28 July 2010 Page Views: 6737
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: St John the Baptist (Tunstall) Alternative Name: The Tunstall Altar StoneCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 4.084 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Lancashire Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone
Nearest Town: Lancaster Nearest Village: Tunstall
Map Ref: SD6141473925
Latitude: 54.159675N Longitude: 2.5924W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 4th Jun 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5 Votive Stone, St. John The Baptist, Tunstall: Driving from St. Wilfrid’s, Melling, we continued north along the A683. Just mile or so along the road, the A683 becomes a ‘minor road’ splitting off to the left, whilst the main carriageway continues as the A687. Following the A683 into Tunstall village, Church Lane is the last turn to the right hand side, almost at the end of the village. This road disappears into green fields with a few large houses along the way. After about 600 metres, the church appears to your left hand side, with parking places outside the entry stile. This is a glorious country setting with a beautifully looked after churchyard.
The ADS web site was down at the time of writing, but the British History Online notes are really helpful, telling me that this church, now named St. John The Baptist, used to be dedicated to St. Michael, and is largely of “15th century date .... there are some remains, however, of a 13th century structure, fragments of which have been used in the rebuilding”.
The church guide was £5, so we didn’t buy it, but quickly looked through it to find it mentioned a Roman altar as well as the votive stone, but no clues as to the whereabouts of either - I had to use my phone to find out where the votive stone was; we found no suggestion of the Roman altar, although there was a display of architectural pieces and medieval grave markers by the west door which included what looked like a very worn Anglo Saxon cross head.
To assist future visitors, the votive stone is on the eastern-most of the three windows (nearest to the organ), on the left hand side of the window surround. Curiously, it has been placed on its side.
At the east end of the south aisle there is a small chapel which contains a much broken effigy, said to be of Sir Thomas Tunstall. There is also an ancient chest just outside the south chapel and outside a sundial shaft which stands on three octagonal steps.
In the church of St John the Baptist at Tunstall, Lancashire, there is a Roman votive altar stone. The ancient stone was dug up in the 1800s at Burrow Camp, a Roman fort some 2 miles to the N. In 1907 it was buried somewhere in the churchyard, but in the 1950s it was brought into the church and embedded, on it's side, in the E window surround of the N aisle. There is some uncertainty as to why the stone was placed on its side.
A Latin inscription written in several lines across the stone is a dedication to Aesculapius, Roman god of medicine and Hygeia, Roman goddess of healing. However, in the 7th or 8th century the stone was Christianised with some Anglo-Saxon decoration added. Also in the church some very nice 15th century Flemish stained-glass in the E window.
The Journal of Antiquities also features an entry for the Roman inscribed stone - see their page for the Roman Inscribed Stone in St John the Baptist’s Church, Tunstall, Lancashire, which includes a photograph of the stone, a drawing, directions for finding the site, plus useful background information from recent source material. The Journal also includes a list of reference material plus related websites where more information can be found. The Journal adds a quotation from Sara Mason (1994): "The stone of which the altar in the present church is made is considered to be Anglian (eighth century) and bears evidence of early Christian worship at Tunstall, possibly from when St Wilfred came westwards from Ripon."
The church is also scheduled as Historic England List ID 1071642, and has three entries in Pastscape:
Inscribed Roman altar: Pastscape Monument No. 44048:
The church building: Pastscape Monument No. 44047; and
The cross and octagonal steps, plus shaft of a later sundial: Pastscape Monument No. 44044.
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