[caption id="attachment_2989" align="alignleft" width="295"] Devil's Door image © Trish Steel[/caption]
I went to my friend's daughter's Christening recently and the service was held in a Church near her home in Sussex. It was a pretty village Church built in the 11th century and I was intrigued by a small wooden door at the back of the Church. One of the other guests explained that this was a so called "Devil's Door". This was a new term for me as I have never heard of a Devil's Door before, but I was told these doors are particularly common Churches that were built in the Middle Ages in Sussex.
Back in the 11th century, it was believed that the North face of the church belonged to the devil. Churches built at this time were often built to the North of entry tracks and roads to ensure that the main entrance was on the south side.
Apparently the small door was built to allow the devil to leave the Church. In the Middle Ages it was believed that the devil was present in the soul of unbaptised children so the baptism service would involve driving out the devil and then it was hoped that the devil would leave via the Devil's Door. It seems that some of these doors were purely decorative and could not actually be opened, but the symbolism was clearly the most important thing. I was advised that many of these doors have since been bricked-up so they are no longer visible.
At Doorsan we have a wide selection of doors, both internal and external, but we do not have a range of Devil's Doors, however if someone wanted to purchase such a door I'm sure we could source a suitable door from our range of traditional timber doors, or alternatively purchase a custom made doors.