Built (with the stones that make up Aisthorpe 2) into the interior east wall of the first floor chamber (the ringers' chamber) of the west tower (Ill. 7). The stones are five courses above the floor and close to the centre of the wall.

Stone 1b carries the date '1867'. St Peter's church was entirely rebuilt in 1867 to the design of the architect T. C. Hine ((—) 1867–8a, xiii; Foster, C. 1927, 136): presumably the stones came to light in that operation. They were first noted by A. J. White in 1982 (Aisthorpe parish file in City and County Museum, Lincoln).

St Peter

Good: slightly weathered, the two stones (1a and b) whose visible faces are the upper surface of the original monument noticeably more so than either 1c or the visible faces of Aisthorpe 2, all three of which represent original sides.

Three pieces that constitute the whole of a large, flat-topped, chest-like and slightly tapering grave-cover of mid-Kesteven type. The transverse panel on 1b forms the foot end of the cover's lid, and it seems virtually certain that 1a is the head end of the same cover, both from its details and the circumstances of its survival. 1c is part of a side panel. Only one face of each stone is visible, decorated in low relief.

A (top): Stone 1a. The upper part of a plain rectangular cross of type A1 (presumably one end of a symmetrical double-ended cross), from whose arms emerge two units of simple pattern D interlace with an incised medial line. The interlace neatly fills the panels above the cross-arms. The border is plain along the edges of the stone and cabled towards the next transverse decorative panel.

Stone 1b. At the narrow end is a transverse panel neatly filled with a unit of half pattern F interlace with an incised double medial line in the form of motif v (Fig. 10). The panel has a cabled border. The remainder of the face has been dressed off to a flat surface and inscribed with the date '1867'.

B (long): Stone 1c. One end of a horizontal panel neatly filled with an incomplete run of interlace (possibly half pattern F) with a single incised medial line. There are flat undecorated borders at the end and along the two incomplete sides; what appears to be an incised dividing line at the end is casual damage. The side borders at 6cm and 7cm are so close in dimension that it is difficult to say for certain which way up this visible side went, but the slightly larger is probably the plinth.

Both the style and design of the surviving decoration make it certain that these three pieces come from a grave-cover of mid-Kesteven type (see Chapter V and Fig. 9). That this is the case is made slightly difficult to comprehend immediately because only one decorated face of each stone is visible and, whereas with 1a and 1b these formed adjoining parts of the decorated upper surface of the cover, with 1c it is part of the decoration of a side panel that can be seen. 1a and b are of such similar appearance and workmanship that they must be from the same cover: their dimensions confirm that probability. 1c is generally similar rather than identical in appearance. Without removing the stones from the wall, it is impossible to confirm finally and directly that it is the missing end section since there are no common visible surfaces, but its dimensions suit well and fit the typical pattern of splitting one of these large covers for secondary use of the stone. (If this were incorrect, then 1c comes from a cover of the same type and nearly identical that would be the third from Aisthorpe.) On this basis, the complete dimensions of the original monument were: L. 143 cm (56.25 in), W. at least 44 > 39 cm (17.5 > 15.5 in), H./D. 34 cm (13.5 in). If all three pieces do belong together, this is one of the most complete surviving examples of its type, though also one of the smallest.

Its individual motifs can be readily paralleled among the group (see Fig. 9): interlace emerging from cross-arms at Burton Pedwardine3, Coleby Hall, Colsterworth 3, Eagle, Lincoln St Mark 2, and West Allington in Lincolnshire, and East Bridgeford, Girton, Hawksworth, Kneesall and Rolleston in Nottinghamshire; motif v at Normanton on Cliff and Rowston; double incised medial line at Barrowby, Bicker 3, Dowsby 3, Eagle, Fulbeck, Kirkby Underwood, Rowston and Sempringham. However, the reconstruction makes it an aberrant example from type because unusually the side panel does not have a transverse panel matching and continuing that on the lid. The same arrangement appears to pertain with Scott Willoughby 1.

Mid tenth to early eleventh century

Pevsner et al. 1989, 92 [1]; Stocker with Everson 1990, 97