THE SPIRE; ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
Probably the most beautiful feature of a Gothic church is the spire,
raising its tapering form far above the town or village and forming a
prominent landmark, denoting the location of the House of God. Although
found occasionally in other styles, the spire is essentially Gothic, and
one of the most marked characteristics of this period. Spires are
generally of two kinds, those constructed of timber and covered with
slates, lead, tiles or shingles, and those built of stone or brick.
Examples of both kinds are very numerous on the continent and in
England, while shingle spires are especially common in Sussex.
The spire is generally acknowledged to have originated from the small
pyramidal roof so frequently found on Saxon and Norman towers. This
gradually became elongated, and the towers were sometimes gabled on each
side, as is the case with the remarkable Saxon church at Sompting, Sussex.
This shows us very clearly the angles of the spire resting upon the apex
of each gable, so that the spire itself is set obliquely to the square
of the tower.
[Illustration: The best example of a Saxon Spire or Pyramidal Roof.
Sompting, Sussex. _Drawn by George Pearl._]
Saxon and Norman spires are very rare in England, Sompting being our
best example of the former and those on the eastern transepts of
Canterbury Cathedral of the latter.
Of Early English spires we have, fortunately, some good examples, among
which are those at Oxford Cathedral, Wilford and Wansted, in the same
county, and a very graceful one at Leighton Buzzard. These 13th century
spires are very common in France, as at Chartres and S. Pierre, Caen.
[Illustration: Leighton Buzzard Church.
With Early English Tower and Spire. _Photograph H. A. Strange._]
Of fourteenth century, or Decorated, spires, we have many examples, of
which perhaps the best is the beautiful spire of Salisbury Cathedral,
although the equally fine one at S. Mary's, Oxford, runs it close for
premier position. The triple group at Lichfield Cathedral belong to this
period, as do the spires of Ross, Heckington, Grantham, S. Mary's,
Newark, King's Sutton, Bloxham and Snettisham, Norfolk. A peculiarity of
the Salisbury spire is that it never formed part of the original design
of the cathedral, being added seventy years later. It is the loftiest
spire in England--404 feet--about 40 ft. higher than the cross of
S. Paul's. It speaks well for the Gothic builders that such a vast
superstructure as this tower and spire could be imposed upon walls and
piers never intended to bear it. At an early period it was found to have
deflected twenty-three inches from the perpendicular, but there has been
no sign of any further movement. Barnack Church, in Northamptonshire,
has a curious spire showing the transition from Norman to Early English.
It will be noticed that the sides of a church spire are slightly curved,
so that they swell out a little in the centre. This is called the
entasis of the spire, and belongs to the study of optics in architecture.
Where the spire has no entasis the same effect is produced by the
introduction of small projecting gables, bands of carving, or a little
coronal of pinnacles.
One of the most clearly marked differences between English and continental
spires is that the latter are much shorter than the towers which support
them, the towers, as a rule, being twice as high as the spires. In
England, on the contrary, the spire is generally very much loftier
than the tower. At Shottesbrook, Berks, and Ledbury, Herefordshire, the
spires occupy as much as three-fifths of the total elevation, and the
usual rule in England is for the tower to be a little less in height
than the spire.
The masons lavished an extraordinary amount of care and skill on their
spires. So much is this the case that there is hardly a mediæval spire
in the country which can be called ill-designed or displeasing.
Church spires are very common in some counties and very rare in others.
There are, of course, exceptions, but it is in the flat counties that
spires are most frequent, the most beautiful ones being found in
Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire,
Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
The top of the spire is usually capped with a weather vane terminating
in a cock. The custom of using a cock as the flag of the vane is of very
early date, for Wolfstan, in his Life of S. Ethelwold, written towards
the end of the 10th century, speaks of one which surmounted Winchester
Cathedral. In the Bayeux Tapestry one is shown on the gable of Westminster
Abbey, and one of the early Popes ordained that every church under the
papal jurisdiction should be surmounted by a cock as emblematical of the
sovereignty of the church over the whole world.