Archived report · 2 min read · Set in Brannock ·
The Gate That Answers at Brannock
A maintenance survey of the cemetery gate at Brannock finds the iron latch lifts on its own whenever a mourner calls a name aloud at the gate, and the names it answers to are all on the burial plots inside.
- filed: Filed with the parish fabric return
- reference: CEM/BRN/04
Subject: wrought-iron entrance gate, Brannock Cemetery, north lodge.
1. The gate was installed in 1903 to a design by the county surveyor. It is hung on two pintles and closed by a single spring latch. It has been painted black at least six times and is in fair condition.
2. The latch was reported stiff by the sexton in January. Inspection found no defect in the mechanism. The spring is within tolerance. The latch throws and seats without resistance when the gate is closed by hand.
3. During inspection the surveyor, Mrs. Pauline Ware, stood at the gate with her clipboard and read aloud the names on the north row of headstones, which she had been asked to note for the fabric return. At the fourth name, a Mr. Ardley, the latch lifted by itself and the gate swung open an inch on its hinges.
4. The surveyor repeated the name. The latch lifted again. She repeated the name of the next stone. Nothing happened. She read the name of the stone after that, and the latch lifted. Over the afternoon she tested twenty-three names. The latch responded to eleven. In each case the response was the same: a clean click, a small inward movement of the gate, and then the latch dropped back into the keep.
5. The eleven names correspond to graves whose occupants died in the parish between 1931 and 1944. The surveyor checked the register. None of the eleven was buried in the same plot as another. None had a living relative listed in the parish records as a current member of the congregation.
6. The sexton reports that the gate is often found open in the morning, although the lodge door is locked overnight. He says he has never found the gate open at the same name twice.
7. Recommendation: oil the latch and restrict the gate to the vehicle entrance. The surveyor was advised to avoid reading names at the gate in future.
8. Observation not explained by the survey: the surveyor's own name is not on any headstone in the cemetery, and she did not give it during the inspection. The gate lifted when she said it under her breath on leaving.