A fragment of carved stone from the late 8th century is the earliest evidence for a church on this site, and its rich decorative pattern suggests this was a site of some importance. The name ‘Kirkby’ is the Danish for ‘church settlement’ indicating that there was a church here when the Vikings arrived in the late-9th century. The 10th century ‘bound devil stone’ or ‘Loki stone’ is part of a crossCross Instrument of torture and execution used in the Roman Empire. The means by which Christ was put to death and therefore the primary symbol of the Christian faith, representing the means by which he is believed to have won forgiveness for humankind. The Cross may be represented as Tau-shaped (like a capital T); with a shorter cross-bar or with a circle enclosing the upper intersection (Celtic). In medieval art a cross made of living branches signifies the Tree of Life. St Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, is said to have discovered the True Cross (i.e. the Cross in Jerusalem on which Christ died) in 326. shaft which probably mixed ChristianChristian Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church to designate all members of the church. and paganPagan Derived from Latin paganus, the Roman term for a rural dweller, this word came to be applied to those who were not Christian, particularly the followers of the classical religion of Greece and Rome and those who followed the pre-Christian religions of Europe Norse imagery as at other northern churches of the period, reflecting the recent conversion of the Vikings to Christianity.