When you walk into a churchyard, do you ever stop to look at the gate you pass through?
Neither did I until a friend and colleague told me about something he believed to be unique to Sussex.
The Tapsel or Tapsell Gate.
Research suggests that the most likely inventor of the gate was John Tapsell, who lived in Mountfield, near Battle, in the early 18th Century.
The first record of a Tapsel gate is believed to be from the churchwarden’s accounts book at St Pancras Church in Kingston near Lewes. An accounting entry in 1729 notes that 1 shilling and 6 pence was paid by the church for the installation of a gate in its churchyard.
As you can see from the photos below the Tapsel gate is an ingenious gate that balances on a central spindle. The gate can be opened with a gentle push, and you never have to wait for someone coming the other way as they can pass by on the other side simultaneously.
Tapsel gates are made of wood and balance on a solid wooden or metal spindle, instead of being hinged on one side. They rotate on this pivot and open with a gentle push. This makes them much easier to negotiate than side-hinged gates, which are often heavy and susceptible to damage.
Tapsel gates take up less room than side-mounted ones. As they’re mounted in the centre of an opening in a wall, this halves their width, preventing entry by large animals like cattle. However, people can pass through either side easily. This characteristic also enables pallbearers to pass either side as they carry a coffin through.
Some gates may possess a shelf or platform on top, allowing pallbearers to rest on their way to the church.
Once told about these gates, I had to go and see them for myself.
My Westie, Harvey, came along as he was as naturally curious as me. (Though he sniffed around a lot more than me.)
We started our investigation at St Simon and St Jude church, East Dean, a few miles west of Eastbourne.
Having discovered how easy it was to open and close the gate, I began to appreciate both the simplicity and ingenuity behind the design.
From here, I drove up the hill along the A259 coast road to St Mary’s Church in Friston, to look at another original gate.
A short drive north to the village of Jevington brought me to the third Tapsel gate, located on the path from the main road to St Andrew’s Church. This gate was the only one with an integral stile. Apparently, this was removed, but restored once more in 1933.
Not all Tapsel Gates are as original as these three. A new one, which remains faithful to the design principles, was installed in late 2003 at St Botolph’s Church, Botolphs, which stands about the River Adur in West Sussex, close to the A283 between Shoreham-on-Sea and Steyning.
Other gates include one at the Church of the Transfiguration in Pyecombe, Brighton, and a gate which opened and closed by means of a wheel, chain, and counterweight at St Leonard’s Church in Heston, Middlesex. There’s also a counter-weighted Tapsel LychGate at St Mary the Virgin Church, Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire.
But I can’t help smiling when I pass through a Tapsel gate. The simplicity and ingenuity of them enchanted me so much, I had to feature one in a novel.
In the opening paragraphs of ‘No Easy Answers’, the ninth Downland Murder Mystery, my sleuth is confronted by entrepreneur Stephen Fox.
‘He stands on the path to the graveyard, gripping the tapsel gate with both hands. He swings it back and forth on its central pivot, as if weighing up choices.’
Whether John Tapsell had any doubts about his invention, I wouldn’t know, but he certainly created something unique and practical for us all to appreciate.
