Monk's Gate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Monk's Gate | |
  Monk's Gate shown within West Sussex |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| Parish | Nuthurst |
| District | Horsham |
| Shire county | West Sussex |
| Region | South East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Sussex |
| Fire | West Sussex |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| European Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Horsham |
| List of places: UK • England • West Sussex | |
Monk's Gate is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A281 road 2.6 miles (4.3km) southeast of Horsham.
[edit] Hymn tune
Although it is a tiny settlement, its name is well known around the world as a popular hymn tune. When Ralph Vaughan Williams was commissioned at the start of the 20th century to edit a new hymnal as an alternative to Hymns Ancient and Modern, he put John Bunyan's hymn To be a pilgrim to the tune of an English folk song which he had collected from Mrs Verrall of Monk's Gate, entitled 'Valiant' or 'Welcome Sailor'. (This was a song about the Napoleonic wars and is included in Shirley Collins' talk on English musical heritage "A most sunshiny day". Shirley sang "The Blacksmith" on the album "Anthems on Eden", using the same tune.) The resulting hymnal, the English Hymnal, has since entered into widespread use, and the tune from Mrs Verrall (rewritten by Vaughan Williams) is officially named Monks Gate. Its metre is 65 65 66 65. The words of John Bunyan's hymn were also rewritten for the hymnal, by the other principal editor, Percy Dearmer. Being so popular, the hymn and its tune have been carried over into the 1986 revision of the hymnal, the New English Hymnal.
