Editing Lychgate (section)

==Description==
Lychgates consist of a roofed [[porch]]-like structure over a [[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]] 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.<ref name="oda454">{{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}}</ref> <blockquote>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.<ref>{{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}}</ref></blockquote>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]], Devon, there is a lychgate in the form of a cross, while at [[Troutbeck, South Lakeland|Troutbeck]], [[Westmorland]], there are three lychgates to one churchyard. Some elaborate gates have chambers over them. In [[Texas]] and the South of the US, lychgates are simpler in construction, usually consisting of a steel or wooden span with a sign showing the name of the burial space.<ref name=":2" />

===Dates of surviving lychgates===
[[File:Lych gate, St George's church Beckenham.jpg|upright|thumb|Lych gate, [[St George's Church, Beckenham|St George's church, Beckenham]], [[South London]], said to be the oldest in England<ref name="brewer" />]]
Most were built from around the mid-15th century although some date from earlier, including the 13th-century lychgate of St George's churchyard in Beckenham, South London, claimed to be the oldest in England.<ref name="brewer">''Brewer's Britain and Ireland'', compiled by John Ayto and Ian Crofton, [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], 2005, {{ISBN|0-304-35385-X}}</ref> After World War I a number of lychgates were built as war memorials, for example that of [[Sandridge Lychgate|Sandridge]], Hertfordshire. Sandridge lychgate is a [[Grade II listed building]] as is that of St Cuthbert's, [[Allendale, Northumberland|Allendale]], Northumberland.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1393517 |desc=St Cuthbert's|accessdate=15 October 2020}}</ref> However, many of these memorial lychgates, such as that of St Peter's, [[Felkirk]], Yorkshire, are not listed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Felkirk |url=https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/157608 |website=War Memorials Online}}</ref> Several new examples were built to mark the new [[millennium]], such as that at [[Lenton, Lincolnshire]].