THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD CHURCHES OF WIRRAL
ton and Eastham held a similar fete when
their spires were completed. Both are of
"
broach type. These," says Francis
Bond, " are indigenous and peculiar to
England ; they are in fact nothing but a
stone version of that type of timber spire
which is to be seen at Bosham. It has
been held, indeed, that the timber broach
spire is copied from the stone one ; but it
is inconceivable that a stone mason could
have evolved out of his own brain such
a strange design as that of the broach
spire ; whereas the design of the timber
broach grew naturally out of structural
exigencies. The characteristics of the
stone broach spire are that it has
dripping eaves, and therefore no para-
or concentric
pet ; that the squinches
arches inside the tower at its angles, which
support the oblique sides of the spire, are
covered with a broach or sloping pyramid
of masonry resting against the oblique
sides, so that normally it has no angle
pinnacles ; and that it has no dormer
windows at its base, but, instead, has two
or more tiers of spire lights. The object
of the spire lights is mainly decorative,
but they are of value in lighting the
interior of the spire and in ventilating it,
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