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To enter some churchyards, you have to pass under a small shelter. Often they incorporate a stone platform and seats. They’re known as lychgates, and traditionally, bodies were kept here before burial.
Its name comes from the Old English word for a corpse - 'lic'.
#thread
Its name comes from the Old English word for a corpse - 'lic'.
#thread
Under a lychgate, a shrouded corpse and its pallbearers would be sheltered before burial. The 1549 Prayer Book ordered the priest to meet the corpse at the churchyard entrance; however, some lychgates existed before this date.
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Once the cleric had met the deceased and the burial attendants at the gate, they could proceed into the church.
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