The St. Augustine's Anglican Church Lych-gate, New Perlican

Long-time followers of the ICH Blog will have read here about the largely-vanished tradition of lych-gates in Newfoundland (you can read our occasional paper on lych-gates here).

A lych-gate, succinctly, is a “covered wooden gateway with open sides at the entrance to a churchyard, providing a resting place for a coffin” (Fleming et al. 277). In Newfoundland, they seem to have been exclusively used by Anglican congregations, and in our earlier research, we found three: one restored in Bonavista, one original in Corner Brook, and one demolished at the Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road in St. John's (you can see a picture of that one here).

An 1922 article in the Evening Telegram describes lych-gates thusly:

H.T. asks why the gate at the Church of England Cemetery at Bonavista is called the Lych Gate. The word Lych or Lich is Anglo-Saxon, and means a corpse. Hence a Lych Gate is a churchyard gate, with a roof over it, under which, on the occasion of a funeral, the corpse and its bearers may await the coming of the officiating minister. A properly equipped Lych Gate has a long seat on each side, on which the bearers may sit, and a stone called the Lych-Stone in the middle of the path, under the roof, on which the coffin may be placed. If the person has died of an infectious disease, and the body is not to be taken into the church, a part of the Burial Service is sometimes said at the Lych-Gate.

We are much indebted to Eileen Matthews of Heritage New Perlican for sending us the photo above, which shows the original St. Augustine's Anglican Church in New Perlican. The photo shows St. Augustine's Church prior to a fire in the early 1900s. Take note of the small, steeply gabled structure to the right of the church.  The building was dedicated by the Bishop in 1886, and the Evening Telegram of the day noted the following:

Built about three hundred yards from the main road, and approached by a good broad road near by—the free labor of the people—its position is seen to be most excellent. As the visitor leaves the main road for the church he passes beneath a lichgate, bearing the inscription, '« Holiness to the Lord," put there to remind him of the reverence due to the place where it has vouchsafed the Lord to place His name. On St. Peter's Day from each of the four corners of the tower floated a flag in honor of the birthday of the church, and as a welcome to His Lordship the Bishop, whilst for the same reason the lichgate formed the base of a triumphal arch, made of the fir and spruce.

There you have it, another lych gate, the fourth identified for the province. This structure no longer exists, and was possibly removed when the church was rebuilt.

If you have a photo of one of these gates, or know of another location where there may have been a covered gate of this type, email dale@heritagenl.ca

Sources:

"Answers to Correspondents." Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1922-08-05. P8.

Fleming, John, Hugh Honour, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture. Fourth Edition. London: Penguin, 1991.

"The Lord Bishop of Newfoundland at Heart's Content."  Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1886-07-07. P4.

Memories of Lych Gates in Newfoundland - gateways for the dead

This undated photograph shows an unidentified woman standing in front of the lych gate, the entranceway to the grounds of the Alexander Chapel of All Souls, located on Coster Street in Bonavista.

The elaborately beamed lych gate is a feature typical of Anglican churchyards. Traditionally, it was the sheltered point at which the coffin was set down at a funeral to await the clergyman's arrival. In some instances, a portion of the burial service was performed while the coffin rested inside the gate. A common feature in English churchyards, the concept of the lych gate was transplanted to North America. "Lych" is a form of the Anglo-Saxon word "līc" meaning body or corpse.

Once common, the only surviving Newfoundland example I know of is in Bonavista. The original lych gate was constructed circa 1899 and was financed by the Church of England Women's Association of Bonavista (1).

One S. Rees of Bonavista, in a letter dated Dec. 7, 1893 to the St. John's Evening Telegram, noted,

Dear Sir, - on Monday the 4th inst., there was no small stir here among the members of the C.E. Sewing Class, and one would naturally ask the cause. But a poster would apprise of the fact that a “sale of work,” under the auspices of the above ladies, was about about to take place; its object, to provide funds to provide a lych gate for the new cemetery. At about 6.40 p.m. the doors were open to purchasers, and when I arrived a few minutes later - considering inclemency of weather - quite A Crowd Had Gathered.

According to the author, the amount raised, $76, "was far above expectation" (2).

The Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road in St. John's also had a lych gate, which was torn down at some point in the second half of the 20th century. It is shown on aerial photographs from 1961, but was removed afterwards. According to HNFL Executive Director George Chalker, it was removed possibly to allow motorized hearses access to the cemetery.

If you have memories, or photographs, of lych gates in Newfoundland, I'd love to hear from you. You can call me at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2, or email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

- Dale Jarvis

(1) Simms, Gavin. "Gateway to yesterday: Anglican Chapel recreates long lost entranceway." The Packet, November 20, 2008.

(2)  Rees, S. "Pleasant Social Event At Bonavista. Sale of Work by the Church of England Sewing Class - Object: a Lych Gate for the New Cemetery." Evening Telegram (St. John’s, NL) 1893-12-16

UPDATE - 17 March 2014:

You can read or download the final version of this research at Lych Gates in Newfoundland

Rare photos of the Forest Road Cemetery Lych Gate and Mortuary Chapel #nlheritage

Followers of the ICH Blog may remember that I have been interested in lych gates, a very specific type of gate that was found at the entrance of Anglican churchyards and cemeteries. You can read more about the history of lych gates in the Occasional Paper #004.

In it, I talk about one of the province's vanished lych gates, the one which once stood in the Forest Road Cemetery.  I knew it had existed, and it is clearly shown on aerial photos and insurance maps, but I had never seen the building before.

Thanks to some detective work by Professor Frederick R. Smith, and the kindness of Mr. Arthur King, we now have this photographic gem - a photo of the gate before its demolition, likely taken sometime circa 1950-1952.

The lych gate is very similar to English examples, and has some similarities to the rebuilt lych gate at Bonavista. It features a sharply gabled roof, with slight bellcurved eaves, Maltese cross motifs, and at least two painted inscriptions, though the photo is just out of focus enough to make it difficult to identify the scripture being quoted (the word "resurrection" seems to be the second word). The woman in the photo is a Mrs. Butt, of the nearby Collier's Lane.

Mr King writes:

Here are some old Forest Road Cemetery photos I scanned from originals supplied by Mrs. Barbara Fry (Heale), a daughter of Victor Heale, caretaker circa 1948-59 . The family lived in the caretaker house on the cemetery. Photos of the entrance gate and old chapel are included. A daughter Elizabeth Heale, shown in the photo, was born in 1942---the photo with her was probably taken between 1950-52. The age of the old chapel photo is uncertain, but probably much before that time---it probably was taken by a commercial photographer such as Holloway as there is an inscription which was his style.

The Church of England Mortuary Chapel photo was said to have come from "The Archives" -- we are uncertain which one. If you have any information on these photos, if you have a theory on the most likely scripture being used on the lych gate, or have any other old photos of the Forest Road Cemetery, please comment below, or contact me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

- Dale Jarvis

More (yes more) on Newfoundland Lych Gates for #MortuaryMonday

Yes, I've blogged before about my ongoing obsession with lych gates (read back if you dare).  I continue to find new pieces of information about this little-known NL tradition.

A lych gate is, as the Evening Telegram told us in 1922, "a churchyard gate, with a roof over it, under which, on the occasion of a funeral, the corpse and its bearers may await the coming of the officiating minister."

Well, I've got a few more gems from the Digital Archives Initiative. First up, above, is an advertisement that was run in The Daily News (St. John's, N.L.), 1955-07-06 page 16. I've written about this particular gate and its lettering here.  I still haven't figure out what the lettering says, so email dale@heritagenl.ca if you have ideas.

Next up, two notices about flower services at the same cemetery.

Evening Telegram 1921-08-06 Flower Service p4

Evening Telegram 1922-08-01 Flower Service at Anglican Cemetery p6

This adds a little bit to my understanding of the uses of the lych gates. While used primarily for part of the funeral service, they were also used in some English churches as part of informal post-wedding rituals, and these clippings indicate they were used, at least in St. John's, as a spot for collecting funds during flower services. Note that the 1921 article refers to this as the "usual collection at the lych gate" which suggests to me that this was a recurring practice.

As always, if you have any memories (or even better, photographs) of any of the NL lych gates, let me know! So far, I know of only four: Bonavista and Corner Brook (extant) and St. John's and New Perlican (demolished).  

"A well proportioned and Church-like building" - Alexander Mortuary Chapel of All Souls, Bonavista

The Alexander Mortuary Chapel of All Souls was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1989 (the chapel and surrounding graveyard were designated by the Town of Bonavista in 2006). It is one of two surviving mortuary chapels in the province, the other being in nearby Trinity. I've written about the Chapel's lych gate before, and recently came across this note, printed in the Trinity section of the Evening Telegram 1922-07-22 (p9):

At the invitation of Canon Bayly who has gone as Chaplain to the Bishop during his Labrador visitation, I went to Bonavista on Wednesday (July 12th) to officiate at the marriage of two of his parishioners. Before the hour appointed for the wedding, however, I was called upon to bury a little child —Marjorie Templeman— This gave me an opportunity to spend an hour in the cemetery and the Mortuary Chapel. The cemetery is beautifully situated, uniformly laid off in lots, with fairly well kept paths all through it. The graves show indications of loving care, and the majority of them are marked by a well proportioned marble cross, thus giving the cemetery a distinctively Christian appearance. A beautiful Lych-gate of which there are so few in Newfoundland guards and admits to the cemetery. The Mortuary Chapel is a well proportioned and Church-like building. It is fitted with an Altar, a Lectern, and a few seats, and the roof and walls are neatly finished with wood in natural colours. This is one of the three Mortuary Chapels in the Diocese (St. John's, Bonavista and Trinity) and if it were fully fitted with seats, the windows filled with stained glass memorials, and the exterior given a fresh coat of paint, it would constitute an easy first of the three. Under the shadow of the east end of the bulging lie the bodies of the father and mother of Canon Bayly, whose names bring back a flood of happy, holy memories to those who were privileged to know them in the parish and in their home. Grant them Lord Eternal rest.

Folklore, fieldwork, and forgotten cemeteries

 

In the 2013 August/September issue of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update: students start the Folklore 6020 field school in Quidi Vidi; the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador launches its most recent publication, on lych-gates in Newfoundland; archaeologist Sarah Ingram gives an update on the wells and springs project; Nicole Penney reports on digitizing the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation Oral History Collection; we have a report on HFNL's recent tombstone rubbing workshop; and notes on a little-known cemetery in Clarke's Beach, Conception Bay.

Contributors: Dale Jarvis, Nicole Penney, Lisa Wilson, Sarah Ingram, Claire McDougall. Photo of the Isaac Snow grave marker by Claire McDougall.

The newsletter is available online as a pdf document. 

Cemetery Workshop: post mortem

This past Tuesday the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office put off a workshop focused on cemeteries in Newfoundland and Labrador. The workshop was held at the Johnson's Geo Centre and looked at the art, archaeology, history and heritage of graveyards in this province. The workshop was a great success and very well attended by members of the community who had varying interests on the topic, from the restoration of headstones to municipal heritage designations for cemeteries. 

The workshop was broken down into two sessions. During the first session Gerald Pocius discussed the origins of Newfoundland headstones and the symbols and epitaphs used on them. Martha Drake discussed archaeology and the Portugal Cove Cemetery and Melanie Tucker gave an overview of Stonepics, a database of over 30,000 photographs of headstones collected from cemeteries across the province. Dale Jarvis also gave a presentation on lych-gates which are elaborate roofed gates that traditionally were the sheltered point at which the coffin was set down at a funeral to await the clergyman's arrival. 

The second session focused on the conservation and heritage of cemeteries.  Andrea O'Brien discussed municipal heritage designation for cemeteries, followed by Annie McEwen who discussed her experience making headstone rubbings in Port Royal, Long Island, Placentia Bay. Lastly, Lisa Wilson described the conservation project which took place at that same cemetery in Port Royal during the summer of 2012. 

After the workshop we asked participants to fill out a form and give us feedback on the workshop. Here are some of the comments we received:

I really enjoyed learning about the databases that exist, in addition to the slide presentation by Gerald Pocius. 

The grave stone rubbings and the restoration of the Port Royal Cemetery was amazing. I would love to do this myself!

I find cemeteries to be fascinating windows into history, and NL seems to have some wonderful sites. 

I enjoyed the variety of topics addressed and the different presentations.

Enjoyed all aspects of it. Really enjoyed the graveyard rubbing session and the Stonepic presentation. Lisa's presentation of restoration was awesome! 

This was a well thought out and amazing workshop on cemeteries!!!

Loved it!!

We'd like to thank all those who attended our workshop and give a big thank you to our speakers for their interesting and informative presentations. 

Check out the ICH page for updates on upcoming workshops and please feel free to get in touch and let us know what kind of heritage workshops you would like to see us put off in the future.