In writing the history of its art, part of the material will be found in these monuments.
The material of which these sculptures are made is usually of local stone. They were carved on the spot and not imported ready made.
In the progress of Anglian art we have the development which began with an impulse coming from the north, and ending with influence coming from the south.
The monuments were possibly executed by Anglian sculptors under the control of Danish Conquerors. Even under the early heathen rule of the Danes, Christians worked and lived, and as each succeeding colony of Danes became Christianised, they required gravestones, and Churches to be carved for them.
Following a generation of transition, at the end of the ninth century, monuments are found displaying Danish taste. The close connection of the York kingdom with Dublin, provides a reason for the Irish influence. Abundant evidence is found in the chain pattern, and ring patterns, the dragons, and wheelheads, which are hacked and not finished into a rounded surface by chiselling.
The Brompton hogbacks are among the finest works of this period.
The Stainton bear, and the Wycliffe bear, are also of this period.
The Pickhill hogback has an Irish-Scandavian dragon, and other dragons are to be seen at Gilling, Crathorne, Easington, Levisham, Sinnington, and Pickering.
New influences came from the Midlands into Yorkshire, after the fall of the Dublin-York kingdom, about the year 950. One instance of this advance in the sculptor's art is to be seen in the round shaft, trimmed square above, at Gilling, Stanwick, and Middleton, which came from Mercia, and passed on into Cumberland, where it is to be found at Penrith and Gosforth. These latter have Edda subjects and appear to be late tenth century.
Gilling has a curious device, which may possibly be the völund wing wheel, and völund appears on the Leeds cross, and also at Neston in Cheshire.