Graveslab in Gowran

Lying on the floor in the SW angle of a 19th-century C of I church which was built on the former chancel of the 13th-century church of St Mary’s (KK020-060006-) in Gowran. A limestone slab (L 2.24m; Wth 1.03m; T 0.12m), straight-sided around the upper edge and chamfered (Wth 0.09m) towards the base. The slab had been broken in a roughly diagonal line from the upper dexter side to the Calvary mount and then across the sinister side. Most of the slab including the cross-head, shaft and upper and sinister side is in one piece. However, the dexter side is in four pieces and the lower sinister side had also been broken off. These pieces have all been reassembled. It is decorated with a cross is raised relief and there is a raised rectangular panel on the dexter side of the cross-shaft. The cross consists of a seven-armed banded segmental floriated cross-head with a moulded knop on the cross-shaft beneath. The cross-shaft terminates on a triangular Calvary mount. The inscription in Latin, in black letter script, begins on the upper dexter side and continues within a margin along the dexter side and onto the surface of the slab in two vertical lines beside the cross-head. The margin across the top and along the sinister side appears to be uncarved. The inscription is transcribed by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 406) as, ‘Hic jacet Richard Nase et Ellana Shortall uxor ei q obiit [ ] die mensis [ ]’. This translates as, Here lies Richard Nase and Ellana Shortall his wife who died the [ ] day of the month of [ ]. Though the date has not been carved, stylistically this slab dates to the 16th/early 17th century. It is listed by Cockerham and Harris (2001, 187). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 20 August 2019