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THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

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pitched<br />

<strong>THE</strong> <strong>OLD</strong> CHURCHES OF WIRRAL<br />

tower roof was a utilitarian<br />

feature onlj:^ until the devotional art of<br />

the xivth and xvth centuries caught<br />

the idea, and developed it magnificently<br />

into the beautiful and elongated spire that<br />

has be<strong>com</strong>e so distinctive and suggestive<br />

a feature of our Christian churches."<br />

The period which followed the Lancet<br />

or Early English type of Gothic was the<br />

Decorated, which,<br />

tion, is subdivided<br />

in Sharpe's classifica-<br />

*'<br />

into geometrical "<br />

and "curvilinear," these terms being<br />

derived from the form of the window<br />

tracery. The geometric style was arrived<br />

at by the study of figures arising from<br />

circles, while the curvilinear is distinguished<br />

by traceries, formed by flowing<br />

lines. Of this variety of architecture<br />

<strong>Wirral</strong> possesses but little that is genuine,<br />

though, in the beautiful church at<br />

Thurstaston, we have a very perfect model<br />

of the Decorated style, and it is really<br />

there that it is best studied. Original<br />

windows may be seen at Eastham, where<br />

the east window of the chancel and the<br />

west window of the tower belong to the<br />

geometric order. The east window at<br />

Thurstaston is curvilinear, while the east<br />

window of the chancel at Lower Bebing-<br />

36

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