# Lychgate
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{{Short description|Gateway covered with a roof in an English-style churchyard}}
[[Image:LychGateStrataFlorida.jpg|upright|thumb|A lychgate in [Ceredigion](/source/Ceredigion), [Wales](/source/Wales), decorated for a wedding]]
A '''lychgate''' (from [Old English](/source/Old_English_language) ''līc'', corpse) or '''resurrection gate'''[{{cite web|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lich-gate?s=t|title=the definition of lich gate|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=6 April 2018}}] is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style [churchyard](/source/churchyard). Examples also exist outside the [British Isles](/source/British_Isles) in places such as Canada,[{{Cite web|last=Jarvis|first=Dale|title=More (yes more) on Newfoundland Lych Gates for #MortuaryMonday|url=http://www.ichblog.ca/2019/04/more-yes-more-on-newfoundland-lych.html|access-date=2020-06-28|language=en}}] the [Upland South](/source/Upland_South)[{{Citation|last1=Jeane|first1=D. Gregory|title=The Upland South Folk Cemetery Complex:: Some Suggestions of Origin|date=1989|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nqxw.11|work=Cemeteries Gravemarkers|pages=107–136|editor-last=Meyer|editor-first=Richard E.|publisher=University Press of Colorado|isbn=978-0-87421-160-3|access-date=2020-06-28|last2=Deetz|first2=James|jstor=j.ctt46nqxw.11}}] and Texas[{{Cite journal|last=Jordan|first=Terry G.|date=1980|title="The Roses so Red and the Lilies so Fair": Southern Folk Cemeteries in Texas|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/30241035|journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly|volume=83|issue=3|pages=227–258|jstor=30241035|pmid=11633245|issn=0038-478X}}] in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Norway,[{{Cite journal|last=Pritchett|first=R. T.|date=1878|title=Norway. Chapter XVII|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20569228|journal=The Art Journal |volume=4|pages=168–171|doi=10.2307/20569228|jstor=20569228|issn=2152-243X|url-access=subscription}}] and Sweden.
==Etymology==
The word ''lych'' survived into modern English from the Old English or [Saxon](/source/Old_English_language) word for "corpse", mostly as an adjective in particular phrases or names, such as ''lych bell'', the hand-bell rung before a corpse; ''[lych way](/source/corpse_road)'', the path along which a corpse was carried to burial (this in some districts was supposed to establish a [right-of-way](/source/Rights_of_way_in_England_and_Wales)); ''lych owl'', the [screech owl](/source/Western_barn_owl), because its cry was a portent of death; and ''lyke-wake'', a night watch over a corpse[{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Lich-Gate|volume=16|page=586}}] (''see [Lyke-Wake Dirge](/source/Lyke-Wake_Dirge)'').
It is cognate with the modern German ''Leiche'', [Dutch](/source/Dutch_Language_Union) ''lijk'' and ''lichaam'', [West Frisian](/source/West_Frisian_language) ''lyk'' and [Swedish](/source/Swedish_language) ''lik'', all meaning "corpse".
Lychgate in Swedish is called ''stiglucka'', literally "step hatch". The explanation is that the gate was split horizontally so that you could step over the lower part without having to open it. Therefore, one can also guess another meaning of ''lych'' (''lyke'', ''luke'', ''lucka'' "hatch, gap") from the Scandinavian languages.
==Description==
Lychgates consist of a roofed [porch](/source/porch)-like structure over a [gate](/source/gate), often built of wood. They usually consist of four or six upright wooden posts in a rectangular shape. On top of this are a number of beams to hold a pitched roof covered in [thatch](/source/thatch) or wooden or clay tiles. They can have decorative carvings and in later times were erected as memorials.
Under the roof there is a gate, usually with two panels that meet in the middle, and the gate is offset away from the Church so that the bier or coffin rests in the centre of the structure, under cover, and inside the Churchyard, in hallowed ground.
They sometimes have recessed seats on either side of the gate itself, for the use of pall-bearers or vigil watchers.[{{cite book |last1=Curl |first1=James Stevens |last2=Wilson |first2=Susan |title=Oxford Dictionary of Architecture |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-967499-2 |page=454}}] Lychgates followed a somewhat predictable pattern, though great variations in form could be seen. Typically, they were gable or hipped roofed, often with benches where mourners could sit, or with a lych-stone, coffin-stool or trestle, upon which a coffin could be rested.[{{Cite journal|last=Jarvis|first=Dale Gilbert|date=2013|title=Newfoundland Lych Gates|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yIVDvYDCod5Ry4MwwD-82_0Dh2aEegvw/view|journal=The Newfoundland Ancestor|volume=29|issue=2|pages=64–67}}]
The most common form of lychgate is a simple shed composed of a roof with two gabled ends, covered with tiles or thatch. At [Berrynarbor](/source/Berrynarbor), Devon, there is a lychgate in the form of a cross, while at [Troutbeck](/source/Troutbeck%2C_South_Lakeland), [Westmorland](/source/Westmorland), there are three lychgates to one churchyard. Some elaborate gates have chambers over them.[''Brewer's Britain and Ireland'', compiled by John Ayto and Ian Crofton, [Weidenfeld & Nicolson](/source/Weidenfeld_%26_Nicolson), 2005, {{ISBN|0-304-35385-X}}] After World War I a number of lychgates were built as war memorials, for example that of [Sandridge](/source/Sandridge_Lychgate), Hertfordshire. Sandridge lychgate is a [Grade II listed building](/source/Grade_II_listed_building) as is that of St Cuthbert's, [Allendale](/source/Allendale%2C_Northumberland), Northumberland.[{{NHLE|num=1393517 |desc=St Cuthbert's|accessdate=15 October 2020}}] However, many of these memorial lychgates, such as that of St Peter's, [Felkirk](/source/Felkirk), Yorkshire, are not listed.[{{cite web |title=Felkirk |url=https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/157608 |website=War Memorials Online}}] Several new examples were built to mark the new [millennium](/source/millennium), such as that at [Lenton, Lincolnshire](/source/Lenton%2C_Lincolnshire).
==Use==
In the [Middle Ages](/source/Middle_Ages), before mortuaries, and at a time when most people died at home, the dead were placed on a [bier](/source/bier) and taken to the lychgate where they remained, often attended against [bodysnatchers](/source/Body_snatching), until the funeral service, which may have been a day or two later. The lychgate kept the rain off, and often had seats for the vigil watchers. Bodies at that time were buried in just [shroud](/source/shroud)s rather than [coffin](/source/coffin)s. At the funeral, the priest conducted the first part of the service under the shelter of the lychgate.
In traditional usage, the gate was "the sheltered point at which the coffin was set down at a funeral to await the clergyman's arrival."[{{Cite book|last1=Veillette|first1=John|title=Early Indian Village Churches: Wooden Frontier Architecture in British Columbia.|last2=White|first2=Gary|publisher=U of BC P|year=1977|isbn=9780774800754|location=Vancouver|pages=90}}] An English commentator, writing in 1899, noted that the lych-gate, "or corpse-gate, with its pent-house roof, is specially provided for the shelter of a funeral while awaiting the priest, but it is only in a few cases that it is exclusively used for that purpose; it is frequently, perhaps, where it exists, commonly, the principal gateway of the churchyard."[{{Cite book|last=Tyack|first=George S.|title=Lore and Legend of the English Church|publisher=William Andrews & Co.|year=1899|location=London|pages=67}}] In some regions of Cornwall and Devon, such gates were called "''trim-trams''" – the spot where a funeral train (or ''tram'') was brought into the proper order (or ''trimmed'') to be ready for the officiating clergyman.[{{Cite book|last=Dyer|first=T.F. Thiselton|title=Church Lore Gleanings|publisher=A.D. Innes and Co|year=1892|location=London|pages=153–154}}] In parts of Scotland, ''Lykerstanes'' (lit. "corpse stones") may have served a similar purpose.[{{Cite journal|last=Laing|first=Alex.|date=1891|title=Replies to Queries|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25516421|journal=The Scottish Antiquary, or, Northern Notes and Queries|volume=6|issue=21|pages=46–48|jstor=25516421|issn=2042-0013}}]
Lychgates serve to differentiate consecrated and unconsecrated space, and serve as a [liminal space](/source/liminal_space).[{{Cite web|title=Lych-gates in Newfoundland :: ICH - Other Materials|url=http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ich_other/id/48|access-date=2020-06-28|website=collections.mun.ca}}] Stone lychgates may create an increased aural awareness of the transition from one space to another by creating a tangible contrast between sounds inside and outside.[{{Cite journal|last=Hedfors|first=Per|date=2004|title=Considering the Authenticity of the Garden Soundscape: Preliminary Research Based on Interviews|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150388|journal=Garden History|volume=32|issue=2|pages=281–284|doi=10.2307/4150388|jstor=4150388|issn=0307-1243|url-access=subscription}}] In England, there was a folk belief that the spirit of the last person buried stands watch at the gate until the next is buried, leading to funeral fights at the entrance to decide which corpse should be buried first.