The De'il's Door.

In the days when I lived in Essex I became fascinated with churches and, somewhere, provided that Mrs TD hasn't tidied it into the rubbish bin, I should still have a box of photographs of village churches: there will be churches fitting into their landscapes, churches filling the frame as well as architectural details. I particularly remember a small, gently rotting wooden cross over an otherwise unmarked  grave in Saint Mary's Church, Sandon, a few mile east of Chelmsford; I had quite a few pictures of that; in fact, I have just Googled the church and it brought a tear to my eye to see a picture with that cross in it - now with a 30 degree list to port - I do hope they don't "restore" it.

The feature that initially attracted me to these buildings was that they were originally built as small churches serving small communities and as those communities grew, so did the churches. You might find a corner where these developments had evolved and see two, or even three, different building styles meeting. Then I discovered devil's doors: the wisdom of the time and area - after making due allowance for my faulty memory - was that these bricked up doorways were incorporated into a corner of the cold, damp north wall at the time of the original design. The Devil lurked in this area, hidden from the light of the sun while the living community entered by either the south or the west door - whichever was provided.
Now, I am unable to find any references to this; what is documented is the north door that was left open while the congregation entered for their service, once they were safely installed it was assumed that the Devil had made a sharp exit via his door which was ceremonially slammed shut behind him to prevent him re-appearing. Many of these doors have since been removed and bricked up.

About six years ago, I had been discussing such things with Mrs TD and a few days later we went to visit Linlithgow church. As always, when visiting a church for the first time, I went around to inspect the north wall and, to my delight was able to show Herself this, a classic Devil's door; there was only one fly in the ointment, the guide book informed us that the door was built for the exclusive use of Mary, Queen of Scots and her retinue. I would have accosted one of the members of staff to discuss the matter, but they were busy preparing for a wedding due to take place later in the day.