The squeeze stile at Middleham, Wensleydale, leads to St. Mary and St. Alkelda which was made a collegiate church by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), in 1477. He lived at the castle at Middleham as a young boy.

For me the stile is both barrier and invitation - a kissing gate reduced to its most elemental form. Two monoliths lean towards one another, their great positive masses made meaningful by the sliver of negative space between. Pass through and the body completes the design.

Look longer and pareidolia takes hold - profiles, brows and weathered faces begin to emerge from the stone. It feels less constructed than conjured. Countless bodies have negotiated this narrow threshold, each briefly embraced by the stones. Practical, sculptural and wonderfully strange - a timeless piece of architecture made from little more than mass, absence and passage.

The castle and church at Middleham

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