Lychgate, St Helen's Church
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Lychgate, St Helen's Church by Maigheach-gheal as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Lychgate, St Helen's Church
Image: © Maigheach-gheal Taken: 4 Oct 2010
Many churches have a lych gate built over the main entrance to the enclosed area round the church. The name, also spelt lich or lytch, is from the Anglo Saxon 'lich' meaning corpse. The gate marks the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, where the bearers sheltered with the coffin, waiting for the clergyman to lead the procession before the burial. The original lych gates had seats, a lych cross and a lych stone - a slab on which the coffin rested.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
54.323301
Longitude
-1.487837