Picturesque Lych Gate with Links to James Bond and Famous Thomas Gray Poem Listed

Harvey Whittam, Chairman of The Stoke Poges Society, had long admired the lych gate and recently applied to Historic England for it to be considered for listing. He said: "I first saw the lych gate in 1981 in the opening scene of the James Bond film 'For Your Eyes Only', when I thought it was beautiful and in a delightful country setting.

"Last year, I started volunteering with others to help to compile a list of historic sites in Stoke Poges for the Parish Council - it was then I realised again, but this time in real life, that it's a fine structure. I am delighted the lych gate has received national recognition. There's no doubt having it listed adds cultural, social and environmental value to the area."

Link to famous poem

The wooden gateway and its flanking knapped flint wall stand prominently in the churchyard of St Giles, a setting associated with the poet Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ published in 1751.

The elegy is said to be one of the best-known poems in the English language. Until relatively recently, it was routinely learnt by school children. It's widely acknowledged to refer to Stoke Poges, where Gray was staying when he wrote the poem in 1750.

Gray is buried in the churchyard and his tomb is listed at Grade II. A nearby monument to Gray designed by James Wyatt and carved with verses of the elegy is Grade II* listed and is a National Trust site. St Giles’ Church itself is Grade I listed. The newly listed lych gate and boundary wall form an ornate entranceway to, and are part of, this group of significant historic structures.

Architect John Oldrid Scott

The lych gate also has special architectural interest in its own right. It is a well-preserved exemplar of its type by a leading architect of the period, with fine carved details. It was designed by the architect John Oldrid Scott and built in 1887 as part of an extension of the churchyard. Oldrid Scott was the eldest son of the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, from whom he inherited the family practice in 1878. Oldrid Scott established himself as a leading figure in the development of the Gothic Revival in England in the last decades of the 19th century.

The low-set wall and ‘most beautiful lych-gate’ were paid for by a donation by Mr Gilliat of Duffield House, Stoke Poges, as noted in a letter to The Times from the then Rector of St Giles, Reverend Vernon Blake, published 22 November 1887.

The Stoke Poges lych gate has stylistic similarities with another designed by Oldrid Scott in 1880 that stands in the Churchyard of St Andrew and St Mary in Fletching, East Sussex - the lych gate is listed at Grade II.

However, Oldrid Scott is best known for his churches of the period, including St Mary's Parish Church down the road in Slough which is Grade II* listed and the Grade I listed Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Aghia Sophia in Westminster, London.

What is a lych gate?

Lych gates are the ornamental gateways which lead to churchyards. They symbolise the threshold between the secular and sacred zones of a parish and once served a practical function of storing a coffin before burial. Their name derives from the Anglo-Saxon or German word for corpse: lich, or leiche.

Medieval lych gates were used as a meeting point and shelter for mourners. The group would convene beneath it and would be met by the priest prior to entering the consecrated churchyard for the funeral service. Lych gates continued to be built throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and later examples, particularly after the First World War, were often erected as memorial structures.