Lich or Corpse Gate

This passage comes from pages 621 to 622 of Curiosities of Popular Customs and of Rites, Ceremonies, Observances, and Miscellaneous Antiquities by William S. Walsh (1925).

Lich or Corpse Gate. The word lich means "corpse," and the fundamental idea of the lich gate is that of a resting place at the entrance to the churchyard, where the coffin may be set down. This was primarily for the benefit of the pall bearers, as most of the old English churches are set well back from the street. It is also customary to set down the coffin while the bier is brought from the church. The coffin is placed on the bier and carried into the church. This has been long the custom at the Church of the Transfiguration. The rubrical direction in the Prayer Book now in use says that the priest and clerks are to meet the body at the entrance to the churchyard, but Prayer Books printed in the sixteenth century direct that the body shall be met at the church stile or lich gate. The gate also serves as a general entrance to the churchyard.

It is known that lich gates existed in England thirteen centuries ago, but comparatively few remain, and hardly any of these are more than four hundred years old. The explanation is that at first most of the gates were built entirely of wood. These have disappeared by decay. Most of the older remaining lich gates are found in widespread parishes and mountainous districts. They are most common in Devon, Cornwall, and Wales. In olden times the body was borne to its burial by friends or neighbors, and where the distances were great the time of arrival was somewhat uncertain, and the lich gate, being roofed, afforded shelter on rainy days and a waiting place at all times.

The most common form of the lich gate is a simple shed composed of a roof with two gable ends, covered with either tiles or thatch, and supported by strong timbers, well braced together. Frequently, however, they are built of stone, and they vary greatly in the manner of construction. At Berry Harbor is a lich gate in the form of a cross. At Troutbeck, in Westmoreland, there are three lich gates in one churchyard. Some of the gates have chambers over them. At Tavistock there is a small room on each side of the gate, having seats on three sides and a table in the centre. In this, as in some other cases, provision is made either for the distribution of alms or for the rest and refreshment of funeral attendants. It was once a common custom at funerals, especially in Scotland, to hold a feast at the church gate. These feasts sometimes led to great excesses. The custom has been discontinued, but it may afford an explanation of the purpose for which the lich gate rooms were built.

In some gates lich stones are found. Frequently such stones are found without the gate. The lich stone is used as a rest for the coffin. It is either oblong, with the ends of equal width, or in the shape of the ancient coffin, narrower at one end than at the other, but without any bend at the shoulder. It stands at the centre of the entrance, and has on each side stone seats on which the bearers rest while the coffin remains on the stone. Very rarely lich stones are found at a distance from the churchyard, being doubtless intended as rests for the coffin on its way to burial. It is thought the several beautiful crosses erected by King Edward I. at the points where the body of his queen, Eleanor, rested on its way from Herdeby, in Lincolnshire, to Westminster were built over the lich stones on which her coffin was placed.