Friday 28 September 2018

Reconsidering the West Kirby Hogback (2016)


I live within 250 metres of an ancient stone, known locally as a Hogback Stone, that dates from 900 or 1,000 years ago. The stone is kept in St Bridgets church in West Kirby, on the Wirral peninsula. 

Here is a fascinating paper by Prof Howard Williams that re-considers what this stone is and what it was used for. It exhumes the stone from hundreds of years of previous archaeological consideration and "...reconsiders the commemorative significance of this recumbent stone monument for the locality, region and understanding of Viking Age sculpture across the British Isles. As a result, West Kirby’s importance as an ecclesiastical locale in the Viking Age is reappraised".