The Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 sculpted Crowle Stone is at the back of the Church of England parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 of St Oswald at Crowle

Crowle, North Lincolnshire

Crowle is a small town and civil parish on the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal and has a railway station...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

.

This was originally carved as a cross shaft and until 1919 it was used as a lintel over the west door. The preservation of the stone is almost certainly as a result of the Norman masons reusing it when the church was built in 1150.

The stone measures 6'11" (2.11m) in height 16" (400mm) thick and 8.5" (215mm) 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

950

Year 950 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Duke Boleslav I of Bohemia makes peace with Otto I....

as the use of runes had almost completely died out by then.