St Dunstan's Church Lychgate - Cheam, UK
N 51° 21.621 W 000° 13.004
30U E 693767 N 5693575
Built in 1891, this lychgate stands at the south west corner of the churchyard of St Dunstan's in Cheam. Unlike many lychgates where the passage is straight through this one has entrances in a "T"-shape with one entrance and two exits.
Waymark Code: WM1159M
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/18/2019
Views: 3
The lychgate has a brick and rubble base with timber superstructure above. It has the usual steep pitched roof that is tiled. There is one entrance to the lychagte and two exits. My observations, that are not confirmed, are that the left exit is for the church and that on the right for the chapel in the grounds of the church. An inscription over the entrance reads:
He giveth His beloved sleep
The lychgate is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:
"Lychgate in the Churchyard of St Dunstan's. 1891, Neo-Gothic. Red brick and flint base with stone dressings, gabled timber superstructure with tile roof with projecting gable above entrance to Churchyard. Cement infilling with pargetting between timbers. Pierced carved bargeboards."
The church is Grade II* listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
"Built 1862-4 by Frederick Pownall and William Young. Spire added by Carpenter and Ingelow 1870.
MATERIALS: Rock-faced ragstone rubble with limestone dressings. Welsh slate roofs.
PLAN: Five-bay nave, N and S aisles, NW tower, N double-bay transept, S porch, three-sided apsidal chancel, N vestries, S chapel.
EXTERIOR: St Dunstan's is built in the Gothic Revival style of the C13. Its dominating feature is the NW steeple which is a landmark for a long way around. The tower has four stages and clasping buttresses, the NW one incorporating a stair terminating in an octagonal stone cap. The lowest stage of the tower has a two-light window on the N side, and to the W a doorway squeezed in between the tower stair and SW buttress. The belfry windows are of two lights with a central shaft and a quatrefoil in the head. The spire is of the broach type and has large lucarnes low down in the cardinal directions and two further small tiers, first in the alternating directions, and finally, near the top, in the cardinal directions once more. At the W end of the nave a large wheel window with eight divisions is set above four equal-height lancets. There are five bays to the nave and lean-to S aisle (four to the lean-to N aisle because of the tower). Between nave and aisles is a shallow band of walling which carries a series of five cinquefoiled clerestory windows. The aisles and chapel have pairs of lancet windows on the side elevations. On the N side are the twin gables of a shallow double transept: each has a two-light window with a quatrefoil in its head. The addition of a flat roof block N of the vestry appears to have been made c1970. The chancel, which is lower and narrower than the nave, ends in a three-sided apse."