THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD CHURCHES OF WIRRAL
attended by morris-dancers fantastically
dressed ; there are men in women's clothes,
one of whom, with his face blackened, has
a belt with a large bell attached round his
waist, and carries a ladle to collect money
from the spectators. The party stop and
dance at the public house on their way to
the parish church, where the rushes are
deposited, and the garlands are hung up to
remain till the next year."
The custom of rush bearing ceased at
West Kirby in 1758.
"The term 'pew,' or *pue,'" say
Charles Cox and Alfred Harvey in their
"English Church Furniture," "origin-
ally meant an elevated place or seat, and
hence came to be applied to seats or enclosures
in churches for persons of dignity
or officials. But it is only of comparatively
recent times that the term has gained
an almost exclusively ecclesiastical use.
Milton used the word to describe the
sheep-pens of Smithfield, and Pepys
applied it to a box at the theatre. Nor
was pew always used to denote a separate
or private seat or enclosure in connection
with
days.
churches even in pre-Reformation
Thus John Younge, of Heme, by
will of 1458 gave '
to
ii8
the fabric of the