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corpse road

Also known as corpse way, coffin route, coffin road, coffin path, churchway path, bier road, burial road, lyke-way or lych-way. “Now is the time of night, That the graves all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide” – Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream. A path used in medieval times to take the dead from a remote parish to the ‘mother’ church for burial. Coffin rests or wayside crosses lined the route of many where the procession would stop for a while to sing a hymn or say a prayer. There was a strong belief that once a body was taken over a field or fell that route would forever be a public footpath which may explain why so many corpse roads survive today as public footpaths. They are known through the UK.

Added by Alan Cleaver

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