Nunburnholme

This church is probably a Romanesque church built upon the site of an earlier and less substantial Saxon church. It has since been modified further to give a building which spans around a thousand years.

The Saxon cross in the tower is a superb example of its kind. It was found, in pieces in the fabric of the church during restoration in 1873. It would probably have had a head attached to its top and this may still yet exist within the church walls. The bottom photograph shows the view from the eastern side of the cross.

The tower arch is twelfth century and displays a range of heads, either with open mouth or protruding tongue. The exception being the exhibitionist figure shown in the second photograph which is on the south side of the arch. It is male and clearly shows the penis, testes and navel; each of these can be clearly felt on the sculpture.

Other figures of interest are the 'green men' on the capital of the tower arch. I put these in quotes because although they appear to be disgorging heads there seems to be no evidence of foliage.