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# ✨ Treasure Hoard: The Lychgate at St. Mary's Church, Ashwell
- URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/treasure-hoard-the-lychgate-at-st-marys-church-ashwell/
- Published: 2026-09-03T07:09:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-03T07:09:09.000Z
- Description: What is so appealing about timber framed buildings is the honesty of their construction - not a morsel wasted - everything is structural, has a purpose - and out of that is extruded a kind of sinuous beauty.
- Author: Andy  Marshall
- Tags: Treasure, hertfordshire, ashwell, st. mary ashwell, lychgate, #treasure-93

The lychgate is a thing of vernacular beauty. It is of the C15th, and is of crown post construction carried on ties with arched braces. I photographed it from every angle possible. It lured me in.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0065.jpeg)

The name lychgate comes from Old English *līc*, meaning corpse. It describes the covered churchyard gateway where a coffin rested before the funeral service began.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0125.jpeg)

What is so appealing about timber framed buildings is the honesty of their construction - not a morsel wasted - everything is structural, has a purpose - and out of that is extruded a kind of sinuous beauty.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0131.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0152.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0153.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0154.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0155.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/08/IMG_0156.jpeg)

And then contagion. After taking a side shot of the gate, I notice another building - short and stock and of c.1500

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/07/IMG_0151-1.jpeg)

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Andy Marshall’s Treasure Hoard Gazetteer

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