> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Latch - URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/the-latch/ - Published: 2023-01-29T08:08:00.000Z - Updated: 2024-12-26T15:13:08.000Z - Description: During my visit, I enter the church via the porch which has an angel topped gate that houses a lock and latch that is a shrine in itself - a secular shrine to its maker. - Author: Andy Marshall - Tags: place writing, st. melangell, pennant melangell, powys, wales, ways of seeing, metalwork, churchcrawling ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/St.-Melangell-Web-secondary-10-1.jpg) **The village of Pennat Melangell is set within a glacial valley, surrounded by fir-topped mountains that bless the shrine church of St. Melangell with a spirit of sanctuary.** The church is a shrine to an Anglo-Saxon princess that, during a hunt by Prince Brockwel, saved a hare and, as a result, was gifted land in the Tanat valley, upon which she built a convent that eventually became the church we see today. The shrine to Saint Melangell, the patron saint of hares, was pieced together like a jig-saw, after the archaeological remains were found around the fabric of the church. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4470-1.jpeg) The shrine stands in sanctuary in the chancel of the church and the first view of it is filtered by the rood. The whole place is other-worldy, it has the atmosphere of a distant land. This space might have been ported from Rome. During my visit, I enter the church via the porch which has an angel topped gate that houses a lock and latch that is a shrine in itself - a secular shrine to its maker. It is so telling of the hands that made it, that I feel a jolt every time I use it. Whereas the shrine of St. Melangell orchestrates a passage through the rood, the lock and latch initiate a carefully composed series of actions. The lock sits behind the gate - so that new visitors have to stop and think about how to enter. It kindles a deferential pause before entry into the church. The lock itself is a bolt and clasp - a form that harks back to Bronze Age artefacts I’ve seen in museums. Comfortingly hammered into rounded shapes, the final flourish is set higher up in a latch that captures the spurt of the Blacksmith’s hammer and anvil. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4486.jpeg) In my photographer’s time-lapse mind, I imagine the flow and ebb of pilgrims into the church and around the shrine. But before that occurs, I see them fast-paced-like-ants, streaming up to the porch, pausing at the gate, bowing over, then unleashing and entering. Each passage, each turn, in effect, a little concerto of movement composed by the Blacksmith’s hand. These things matter. The latch is hot-wired through a conduit of use, gifting us a palpable connection to the past and the people that inhabit it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4487.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4461.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4488.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4489.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4615.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/IMG_4613.jpeg) **Place Writing Series** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2022/12/dji_fly_20221207_163646_260_1670430965419_aeb-1.JPG) I'm writing! [place writing - Andy Marshall’s Genius Loci Digest![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/12/Andy.png)Andy Marshall's Genius Loci DigestAndy Marshall![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2022/12/dji_fly_20221207_163646_260_1670430965419_aeb.JPG)](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/tag/place-writing/)