The Rev. William Slater Calverley (1847–1898) was an unassuming rural English vicar who through diligent study and painstaking scrutiny became an extraordinary amateur antiquarian. Although born in Leicestershire, Calverley claimed his fame through interpreting the carved sculptured relics that he and others found in Cumberland churchyards. He made intricate drawings, corresponded with academic authorities, and gave his own interpretations, which he then relayed to a wider audience. Calverley later produced in intricate detail a life-sized reproduction of the famous Gosforth Cross, which now stands in Aspatria churchyard.
Biography
Religion and education
William Slater Calverley (1847–1898) was born at Kibworth, Leicestershire in 1847. After completing his formal education he entered New College, Oxford, but left to take up private tuition before attaining his degree. During this period he began to study art at the South Kensington School of Art and according to contemporary reports could have achieved the gold medal but for illness. This period of study proved very useful later in life. Notwithstanding his artistic ability he chose to enter the church. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Goodwin at Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1872 and afterwards became curate of Eskdale parish, South Cumberland. In the following year he took priest's orders and assumed an appointment as curate at Maryport, moving in 1874 to Dearham, where he served three years as curate and eight years as vicar of the same church. Under his guidance the church was restored, the vicarage and church yard enlarged and improved, and the district church at Ellenborough founded. In 1885, he became vicar of St. Kentigern's Church, Aspatria. One important feature of his pastorate of Aspatria was the acquisition of a peal of bells for the church.
Antiquarianism
Calverley ignited an interest in local and ancient history during the church restorations at Dearham, which brought to light remains of ancient art. Through the study of pre-Norman stones and artefacts he became one of the world's foremost antiquarian scholars. After finding several pre-Norman sculptures he contacted leading authorities, and formed a close working relationship with the English born professor, George Stephens of Copenhagen University. Stephens incorporated and embodied Calverley's discoveries and descriptions into one of the chapters of his book Old Northern Runic Monuments The communications with Stephens encouraged Calverley to delve deeper into the subject and in 1883 he announced to the Archaeological Institute at Carlisle, his reading of Edda myths on the Christian cross at Gosforth, West Cumberland. The news created a sensation; prior to these discovery authorities held that Christian monuments contained nothing but Christian subjects. Although others had tried to make a connection with Buddhism, Druidism, and Astronomy, Calverley identified the 'Pagan overlap' in English relics. His critics were finally silenced after the Rev. G. F. Browne (later Bishop of Bristol) published his research into the meaning of the Scandinavian legends on the cross at Leeds, and the one at Kirk Andreas, Isle of Man. In February 1891, Calverley interpreted the Völsung myth at Halton in a lecture to the Lancaster Philosophical Society and later that year he read a paper on the same subject to an audience at the Royal Archaeological Institute at Edinburgh.