It came to light during a clean-up of the grounds between 1985 and 1987, when a considerable number of similar slabs were uncovered together. That kind of discovery, a clutch of medieval grave markers emerging at once, is unusual enough, but this particular stone rewards closer attention on its own terms.

The slab tapers from 0.4 metres wide at the top to 0.25 metres at the base, and runs to just under 1.2 metres in length. Cut into its surface is a four-armed floriated cross, meaning the arms terminate in leaf-like or flower-like forms rather than plain ends, centred on a lozenge shape carrying a further decorative motif. At the base of the shaft, the carving resolves into a fleur-de-lys, the stylised three-petalled lily that turns up repeatedly in medieval ecclesiastical stonework across Europe. R. Harte, writing in the Old Kilkenny Review in 1987, placed this slab stylistically within the 13th or 14th century, a period when such incised slabs, flat stones carved in low relief rather than raised sculpture, were the standard form of grave marker for people of some local standing. The church with which the slab is associated, Newtown Earley, is itself a medieval foundation, and the collection of slabs now sheltered within its walls represents a modest but coherent record of the community that once gathered there.