Derby Museum and Art Gallery – Fragment of Hog Back Tombstone

This is the fragment of a Viking Hog Back tombstone which dates to around the tenth century. The information panel reads:

“When complete this was in the shape of a house, with a bear-like beast gripping each end. This type of tomb was the fashion of Norwegian settlers in Yorkshire and Cumbria, but is unusual in the Midlands.”

They’re quite intriguing things as although they were created by Vikings, they don’t appear in Scandinavia, so they’re Anglo-Scandinavian in origin. It’s made from the local Derbyshire gritstone and it seems quite tough.

It was found at St. Alkmund’s Church in Derby in 1844 when they were building a new church. There had though been a religious building on the site since the ninth century, but some bloody idiot decided to pull the church down in the 1960s. Now, this meant that numerous other historic artefacts were discovered which is fascinating from a different viewpoint, but the demolition seems a little odd to me. I’ve followed the arguments that took place in the press in the 1960s and it appears that the sheer incompetence comes down to Geoffrey Allen, the Bishop of Derby. I say this because the congregation, parochial council members and local residents seemed bloody furious and the church had to respond saying that, yes, the Church of England had agreed the demolition at meetings that Allen was present at. They struggled to provide any defence of what Allen had been doing and I’m struggling to understand why they were so willing to lose a location that had been home to a church for over 1,000 years, even conceding that the steeple was falling down. Anyway, I digress here.