Lychgate

Some good natured & multi-talented folks from our church have been repairing our lychgate. They are using hand-cut oak tiles, each being hand-shaped for their particular resting place. A labour-intensive job (6 Saturdays do far), with excellent results & which many in our community will enjoy.

Lych is derived from the Old English 'lich', meaning corpse. From 1549 it was required that lych-gates be built at the entrance to churchyards. They were meeting places and shelters for the party bringing a corpse for burial, and for the priest to receive the corpse.

Our lychgate (built in 1930) is the meeting place for wedding & funeral parties gathering prior to entering church, local youth wandering from place to place, people dodging the rain or catching their breath, partners waiting for their other half to emerge from church, bored children waiting for mum & dad, and, judging from the items left behind, a few other things too.

In 1381 Jack Straw led the peasants of Essex on the Peasants Revolt. They gathered at this spot in St Mary’s churchyard before heading to London and Parliament to protest. Perhaps the present Jack Straw might like to do a bit of revolting?