Lych Gate And Coffin Rest At North East Entrance To Churchyard, Church Of St Mary

The lych gate and coffin rest at the north-east entrance to the churchyard of the Church of St Mary in Cheddon Fitzpaine was built around 1920. It is constructed from flat bedded local stone and features buttresses and a plain clay tile roof. The structure is single storey and consists of one bay, with a semi-circular headed archway made of voussoirs and a barrel vault. The entrance front has a slab incised with a Celtic cross and a wooden gate adorned with wrought iron decorative cresting. Inside, there is a coffin rest made of flat bedded local stone, featuring an incised slab with a cross of fleur-de-lys. This lych gate is dedicated as a memorial to those who died in the 1914-18 war, with an inscribed tablet located on the interior east wall. The design is reminiscent of the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens at Hestercombe but cannot be directly attributed to him.