Tuesday 2 October 2018

As cold as charity, and charity's chilly...




Image result for ode to a road a272


In Pieter and Rita Boogaart's superb travel book about the A272, which is a famous East/West route from East Sussex to Winchester, there are so many unheard facts, that it's difficult to keep up, and it all needs reading again!

I used to travel that route regularly from about 1975, as I had a lot of work in Hampshire, and much of the motorway network hadn't been built. It would always take me three hours to get to Winchester, however fast I drove, because all the traffic would meet up again in the lovely towns like Petworth and Midhurst, so an average of 40 mph was the order of the day, and it hardly ever changed.

Of the snippets which pepper every page, there's a couple which I was interested to learn about. One is that the origin of a lychgate on a church wall, was originally to accept a dead body at a funeral, and hopefully the vicar stayed in the dry! The funeral service started at that point.

I told this to a good friend who hails from the North, and she told me that the particular ritual also applied to weddings - mostly in Yorkshire! I always thought they were a sort of folly or just a plain architectural addition, but the idea originally was that once at the church gates, one either went on to be spliced, with no escape, or finished up 6ft under, ditto...

But another item caught my imagination. The author covers some detail on The Cokelers.

http://scm.pastfinders.org/cokelers_1.htm

Reading between the lines, it seems that they were a slighly odd sect, and didn't really seem to want to enjoy themselves either, but they did a lot for charity, and I suppose their pious intent never did anyone any harm, apart from discouraging marriage, which may well have turned out a bit tiresome at the local dance hall...

I've started several chums on ths book, and we all compare notes - it's well worth a read...

7 comments:

  1. Having just looked the term up, the name derives from the Saxon word lich meaning corpse. I haven't heard of the Cockelers and thought you misspelled cocklers and there was a case a number of years ago where some drowned in Morecambe Bay. I've never eaten them (cockles not cockelers) because I don't like the look of them.

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  2. According to Wikipedia the Cokelers had a system of beliefs similar to the Peculiar People in Essex. Not sure if that's good or bad.

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  3. Here's the reference Goosey!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Dependants

    As Mr H mentions, there were similar sects in Essex, but that's Essex for you...

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  4. They were an odd bunch Mr H, and Loxwood isn't that far from here - I often used to drive through as an old route to Guildford, and it's really rather a nice place!

    I keep thinking of an Amish connection, but haven't got very far with that!

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  5. Having had a prowl on t'internet they were called cockelers because they drank cocoa instead of alcohol but I can't find any connection with the Amish except for similar religious beliefs etc.

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  6. I was really thinking on those lines, Goosers.

    I rather like The Amish way of life...

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  7. Don't tell me you prefer cocoa to alcohol??? Nay lad, nay. You'll let the side down!

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