This was originally carved as a cross shaft and until 1919 it was used as a lintel over the west door.[1][2] The preservation of the stone is almost certainly as a result of the Norman masons reusing it when the church was built in 1150.[3]
The stone measures 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) in height 16 in (410 mm) thick and 8.5 in (220 mm) wide.
The stone is ornately carved on all three sides. At the bottom of one face there is a runic inscription which would date the cross shaft as being before 950 as the use of runes had almost completely died out by then.
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abFowler, J.T. (1868). "Notes on the Discovery of a Shaft of a Stone Cross, with a Runic Inscription, at Crowle Church, Lincolnshire". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London (4): 187–190.
Townley, Angus.
"Crowle Stone". Crowle Community Forum. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Harris, John (23 November 1989). Antram, Nicholas (ed.). Lincolnshire. The Buildings of England (2 ed.). Pevsner Architectural Guides.
ISBN978-0-14-071027-4.