iron · double-throw lock · oak ring · the verger
the lock is the original, set into the south door of the chapel of st. eth on the parish road. a double-throw, two and a half turns, the second turn engages the upper bolt that holds the door against the jamb in a wind. the door is oak, hammered with eight studs, and weighs what two grown people weigh.
the key is kept on a turned oak ring large as a saucer so that it cannot, accidentally, go in a pocket. it lives, between uses, on a nail by the porch of the verger's cottage. the verger is the third of his family to hold the post. he walks the key down to the chapel at half past six on saturday evening and back up the hill at noon on sunday, and otherwise the chapel is shut.
the key has been dropped into the font once, in 1894, by a young curate whose hand was shaking. the bit took a small chip on the lower tooth and has not been re-cut since; the lock accepts the chip as a feature of the key and refuses any other.
field-note — the ring smells, in summer, very faintly of candle and rope. the verger does not know why and has stopped asking the previous verger, who is dead.
key museum · tomb key · custodian · ritual · organ