Lych Gate And 3 Sets Of Gates And Gate Piers And Wall And Coffin Rest Adjoining North East Gate

This is a late 19th-century lych gate and associated gates, piers, boundary wall, and coffin rest adjoining the north-east side of St Peter’s Churchyard in Tiverton. A section of boundary wall on the north and west sides, and that adjoining numbers 58 and 60 St Peter Street, is likely of earlier origin.

The lych gate is constructed of wood on a stone ashlar base, with a red tile roof featuring a crested ridge tile. The south and north-east gates consist of wooden panels between stone ashlar piers. A stone ashlar coffin rest stands adjacent to the north-east gate pier. The boundary wall is of rubble construction, squared on the east and south faces, with squared stone coping. A rendered brick and stone rubble wall with piers, remnants of a fourth gate leading to the River Exe, appears in the south-west corner, adjoining numbers 58 and 60 St Peter Street.

The lych gate stands on stone walls approximately 1.2 meters high, with chamfered tops. These support wooden sill beams holding chamfered and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The posts are paired on each side and carry horizontal timbers supported by moulded arch braces springing from crenellated corbels. The spandrels are filled with open trefoiled panels, and the horizontal timbers support curved braces rising to the principal rafters of the pitched roof. Tudor arches, formed by additional horizontal timbers and moulded braces, are positioned across the gateway's front and back, also springing from corbels with darts and quatrefoils in their spandrels. The gables have carved bargeboards with cinquefoil arches. The wooden gates have solid lower panels with diagonal planking; the upper portions are open, with square, chamfered balusters. Shaped iron finials are positioned between the balusters and along the top rails.

The south gate piers are oblong, with a chamfered plinth and tall, stepped, tapered caps. The gates consist of plank panels with an open quatrefoil cut in the top of each plank, topped with iron finials matching those on the lych gate. The north-east gate piers are plain and square, serving as extensions of the boundary wall, with simpler gates lacking the ironwork. The coffin rest is a plain oblong, with a modern concrete top.

The boundary wall has chamfered coping, with the north and western sections exhibiting older construction. The later walls on the south and east sides, facing St Peter Street and The Works, have pilaster strips at intervals. The wall section adjoining numbers 58 and 60 St Peter Street is divided by panelled piers with low pyramidal caps, and the wall between is also panelled, with its coping swept up at each end. Two similar piers on the north side carry a simple iron gate with decorated finials on the uprights.