THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD CHURCHES OF WIRRAL
blocks. And if you look at some of the
earliest masonry in our churches, you will
still see the broad wound made by the
axe, before our English forefathers learnt
the use of the chisel. Thus the building
becomes more permanent, rough but
sound and good. And as year by year
is drawn more and more into
England
contact with the larger world across the
sea, the skill and knowledge of the men
who work in stone become more widespread,
and the buildings more elaborate
in detail, until, in Eadward's time, the
Norman masons travel in bands up and
down the land, rearing structures, some
of which we have with us to-day.
Then the Conquest. And the new
lords, with some of their new-found
riches, build grand piles, like St. John's
in Chester, and many another massive
monument. And the grandsons are not
content simply to follow in the footprints
of their fathers, but develop the details,
and the work becomes more ornate ; and
one day a builder sees the beauty of the
pointed arch, and others follow. So that
we have to-day not the creation of a single
mind and the effort of a year, but the
accretion of a millennium and the count-