Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

There is no doubt in my mind that the course of war and its influence altered the way the course of my life would have run. Even without the education I have travelled widely visiting monasteries, cathedrals and parish churches, not for religion but for interest in medieval history. People often ignore the dedication of a church but St Michael was a cult whose members favoured this saint. Almost all churches bearing this name where built on high ground, so were St Catherine, the church of St Anne near a well or stream. St George came back later with the returning crusaders and replaced St Edward. The largest dedication was for St Mary, but all parish churches were originally under the influence of Rome. We have spoke about the lych gate, but I often wondered if there was a boundary Tapsell gate as well, swing gate on a central pivot that was wide enough for people but not wide enough for cattle, but I have not come across any mention of one.

That is very interesting regarding the gate. A Tapsel gate is a type of wooden gate, unique to the English county of Sussex, which has a central pivot upon which it can rotate through 90º in either direction before coming to a stop at two fixed points. It was named after a Sussex family of bell-founders, one of whom invented it in the late 18th century. Only six examples survive, all within a 10 mile (16km) radius of Lewes, the county town of Sussex. Tapsel gates have the dual advantage of keeping cattle out of churchyards and allowing the efficient passage of coffins carried to and from the church during burials. The name sometimes is used more generally to describe swivelling gates of a similar design elsewhere.

Helen, I forget you can get information off this internet, I did not know it was only a Sussex gate, I never looked it up, I got my info. from a local lad in Pyecombe in 1984 when it was a drinks station on a 80 mile run. Interestingly, a few yards away are the Jack and Jill windmills.

Lovely print of St Michael's

Steve and I were out today testing my recent camera acquisitions. Here are a couple of the window over the west door.

St Michael's with Holy Trinity in sunlight.

The spiral staircase in the Cathedral spirals in a clockwise direction going upwards, so the defenders would be able to stab down around the twist of the stairs to big advantage for right-handed men. So waggoners and carts followed suite, and drove on the left, as did the Romans, as I proudly explained to a group of open-mouthed Yankee soldiers one-time in the Cathedral.