page_title: Tapsel gate
section_title: Location of the gates
hierarchical_section_title: Tapsel gate / Location of the gates
caption_attribution_description: English: The Tapsel gate at St Andrew's church, Jevington, East Sussex, England
context_page_description: A Tapsel gate is a type of wooden gate, unique to the English county of Sussex, which has a central pivot upon which it can rotate through 90° in either direction before coming to a stop at two fixed points. It was named after a Sussex family of bell-founders, one of whom invented it in the late 18th century. Only six examples survive, all within a 10-mile radius of Lewes, the county town of Sussex. Tapsel gates have the dual advantage of keeping cattle out of churchyards and allowing the efficient passage of coffins carried to and from the church during burials. The name sometimes is used more generally to describe swivelling gates of a similar design elsewhere.
context_section_description: Gates of various ages exist at village churches in East and West Sussex. St. Simon and St. Jude Church at East Dean, St. Mary the Virgin Church at neighbouring Friston, and Coombes Church in the hamlet of Coombes retain their original gates, without any restoration.  The gate at St. Andrew's Church in Jevington was the only one with an integral stile, but this has been removed and it was restored in 1933. The local parish council has adopted the gate as its logo.  The gate at the Church of the Transfiguration in Pyecombe is a replica of its original, and is topped by the curved end of a Pyecombe crook—a type of shepherd's crook popular among downland shepherds, which was made in a forge opposite the church.
  St Pancras Church at Kingston near Lewes, has a modern replacement for the old gate which was first set up in 1729. 
  A short distance from Coombes Church, a modern Tapsel gate links the churchyard of St Botolph's Church in Botolphs, West Sussex, with an adjacent council burial ground. Completed and installed late in 2003, it was dedicated by the Area Bishop of Horsham in 2004.
  No gates of the true Tapsel design have ever been reported outside Sussex, although variations on the concept have been seen occasionally.  In 1896, for example, the Sussex Archaeological Society used the name "Tapsel gate" in its description of a device which opened and closed by means of a wheel, chain, and counterweight.  This was at St. Leonard's Church in Heston, Middlesex (now Greater London).  The name also is used to describe gates of related, but not identical, design at St Wilfrid's Church in Burnsall, North Yorkshire (this gate is operated by a pulley mechanism), Hayes in West London, and North Cerney in Gloucestershire (these are integrated into lychgates rather than being free-standing).
caption: St Andrew's church, Jevington, East Sussex
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