Church Way, one of Seale's former corpse paths.

Church Way is an extraordinary survivor.  It is the former lane that leads from ‘old’ Overseal to the church at Netherseal and was used by the villagers to go to Sunday worship, for christenings and weddings, and, perhaps most significantly, as a burial route.  It is an old route and first appears mentioned in the records in a deed dating to circa 1280, when an acre of land, a ‘gift by William son of Henric the Clerk of Greate Seale to the Abbey and Monks of Merevale of one acre of arable land in a field of Seale beyond the Chirchweye…’. The next mention dates to 1^st May 1333 and is a grant by ‘Richard Henry of Seale to Robert, son of William of Brewood of Seale, of arable land in the field of Seale, near the cross standing in le Lychweye’.

Church Way visible after ploughing, April 2020.

The ‘field of Seale’ is one of the great open fields of the parish, the cross is the stone cross discussed in another post and ‘le Lychweye’ is Church Way itself. ‘Le Lychweye’, like a lychgate at a church, is the path by which the dead are brought for burial.  Clearly, in the minds of our ancestors, this was a burial route, a corpse path no less…

 

Corpse paths are known around the world and about which are a roughly similar set of traditions, namely that they are as straight as possible as spirits or souls of the dead become trapped or confused by bends or forks along the way; that the path could be used by the ghosts at certain times of the year; that coffins should be carried on the shoulders of people and not by horse or horse and cart; that where the path crosses water special spells or prayers needed to be said (ours crosses the Kesbrook near the Netherseal end of the way, and the folk belief in the difficulty spirits have in the crossing of water is very ancient indeed).  Some traditions have the corpse’s feet pointing away from home so that the spirit cannot find the return path, corpse candles can be seen along the way at certain times as the spirits travel along the route, and many more.  The routes are usually named, as ours is, ‘Church Way’, Lychway, ‘Coffin Path’, &c.  The direst of bad luck is said to proceed from ploughing up a corpse path…

It is difficult to know the real age of the path itself, certainly as old as the Anglo- Saxon period but only time and more research will tell us if it is older than that.  The southern end of the path has degenerated to public footpaths and the northern end has been ploughed over, but is still visible on the ground as a ploughed-out, but clearly formerly cobbled/ gravelled track.  Aerial footage from a drone flown over the path in May 2020 clearly shows the track as a contrasting line of gravel.  The centre section is hedged in (as the north section used to be until the 1990s) and parts of it appear as a clear, wide track with a ditch either side, raised slightly from the surrounding fields and with a more recent hedge (possibly enclosure era) either side.  At the northern end, where the route crosses the field and meets the centre section the ploughed-out depressions of former ditches either side and the slightly domed path are still just discernible. 

 

The southern end of the path approaching the church in Netherseal was a puzzle for a long time…

 

In the Derbyshire Records Office at Matlock is a truly remarkable map.  Dating to circa 1570 and known as ‘The Gresley Processional Map of the Seale Estate’ it features in the DRO’s Fifty Treasures. Rightly so!  It is a map of genuine beauty and antiquity showing the circular route of the equivalent of the ‘Beating the Bounds’ for the Seale Estate.  The parish of Seale was quite large and held a number of townships; Netherseal, Overseal, Boothorpe, Donisthorpe, and other smaller hamlets.  At the centre of the processional route is the once great ancient wood, (formerly known as Grimswood) and made up collectively of a number of smaller woods, some mediaeval parks, some not.  The map itself will be the subject of a different discussion but for now it shows a route leading south from Overseal and passing to the north side of Netherseal church.  At first, I thought to cartographer had placed it mistakenly but as my wife pointed out, he had clearly drawn all of the villages in three dimensions and correctly painted the different church styles and all the other village roads correctly so why would he make a mistake here?  He hadn’t.  The Gresley Processional Route led along Church Way and past the north door…

 

In around 1895, Mrs JB Gresley wrote a short history of Netherseal, which contains the following clue: ‘You will notice the Church like most of the period has a North Door which was probably used by the Overseal people who came by what was called ‘Church Way’ which went at the back of the cottage opposite the Rectory and was divided from the field called the “Hop Yard” when the Church was restored.’ Netherseal church was virtually rebuilt between 1874 and 1877.  Overseal church was built between 1841 and 1846.  Church Way fell quickly into disuse as a corpse path after Overseal church and graveyard opened…

 

A small number of maps of the parish are still extant and the 1843 map shows the route of the old Church Way in the corner of the field, also leading to the north door.  LiDAR also reveals a path that leads away from the route of the current public footpath and exactly along the line indicated on the Gresley Processional and the 1843 Tithe Map.  The 1815 map is of a much smaller scale but does seem to indicate a route to the north of the church.

Aerial photographs show the path at the Overseal end and LiDar reveals the old route at Overseal and across the fields approaching the north of the church at Netherseal, although part of the route has had houses built across it.  Many of the old river stones that were used as cobbles have been ploughed up and dragged from the fields, removing much of the evidence for its existence.

The former cobbles of Church Way.

Overseal Parish Council installed a heritage sign in June 2020 marking Church Way as it leaves the village to the mother church at Netherseal.  Presumably the folk of Boothorpe would have followed the lane from the hamlet past Hanging Hill to join the church way at Overseal.  The roads across the Woulds were changed following new laying out after enclosure in 1800.  The folk of Donisthorpe perhaps walked to church along the route that is now a public footpath from Seals Road to Acresford, crossing the Hooborough Brook at the ford there and then along the lane to church.  Further research  may give us that information.