piggottbx29im187.tif  

{- per boarshill on HEIRtagger: "Now moved across the road to the Vale & Downland Museum in Wantage. Easy to miss - it looks smaller and darker in its museum case."

per boarshill in second HEIRtagger comment: "Written up by Piggott in 1934 : Piggott, S., A Saxon cross shaft fragment from Wantage, Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club 7(3), (1934), pp 149-50. But *found* in 1892 by the Rev J Denis de Vitré "among a heap of stones in the cemetery", and described in several local archaeological publications and in "The Antiquary" in 1893."

per boarshill email: "Dear Janice
HEIR 35813 - Piggott: England: Oxfordshire: Saxon cross-shaft, Wantage Church
First of all, I must thank Suzie Tilbury of the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage, who pointed out where this piece was after I had walked right past it! My only excuse is that it looks smaller, thinner and much greyer than it does perched and brightly lit on the chair in the HEIR photo.
The photos attached were taken by me and yours to use as you see fit.
(the red blob on the top is a plastic lobster. No, I don't know why .... )
Some points:
(1)
Vale and Downland museum information board.
This is what it says:

Architectural Stone
A decorated stone from the Parish Church of St Peter and Paul, Wantage (opposite this museum).
Carved from oolitic limestone with an interlaced pattern characteristic of the 1100's.
It may have formed part of the column inside the original Saxon Minster Church of Wantage.

(2)
Piggott, S., A Saxon cross shaft fragment from Wantage, Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club 7(3), (1934), pp 149-50
"This carved fragment .... forms one quarter of the circumference of a circular shaft, presumably that of a cross, and is preserved in the south porch of the Parish Church of Wantage" "... a central date of about 950 should not be far wrong for the Wantage example."

AND

"This fragment was found in 1892 by the Rev J Denis de Vitré, among a heap of stones in the cemetery : it is believed that it came originally from a small chapel that formerly stood in the churchyard -- Ed."

(3)
So Piggott was not the finder - that was Rev J Denis de Vitré.
But who was de Vitré? (apologies if this is overkill for HEIR purposes!)

Basics:
His full name John Durham Denis de Vitré (1870-1951), Radley College (1884) and Christ Church.
He became a Naval Chaplain until 1922, and was then Vicar of nearby West Hendred about 3 miles east of Wantage from 1927.
The Royal Naval Museum at Greenwich holds some of his papers.

The Radley College register:
http://www.radleyarchives.co.uk/people/1113-john-denis-de-vitre-1884
This Radley record even includes an 1888 photograph - De Vitre is back row, white cap, where the double doors meet.
(Photograph Album B Social 1 (1888-1923)-002 1888.jpg)

Alison Petch of Pitt Rivers:
[Alison Petch [as part of 'The Other Within' project 2006-9] 05/03/2007] -- she has him down as a "Field Collector":
" ... de Vitré, J.D. possibly John Durham Denis; Biography: PRM relationship: Field Collector, Other Owner, PRM Source Continents: Americas, Europe Career: Religious Clubs: none known; Collected or donated by: 1934; Source: PRM Relational Museum project. According to the accession book he was vicar at West Hendred, near Wantage, then in Berkshire."

And SOLO turns up this, which might be interesting for someone to look at ....
De Vitré, John Durham Denis ; Title: [Scrapbook of photographs formerly belonging to J.D.Denis de Vitré]
Bodleian Library 17092 c.21
Books / Closed Stack
(4)
The Antiquary Vol XXVII 1893 page 4: [original includes scan of article]" -}