PARISH CHURCH OF WEAVERHAM n i^Uu 238

1485. Whether that is so or not I will not say, but it certainly was rebuilt before the church was altered in shape, because buttresses of the north-east and south-west corners distinctly show where the walls of the aisles have been added on to it. There is a record of the will of George Farnley, of London, dated 1505, in which he leaves a sum of money for the " rcpaire of the Steeple of the Church of Wereham in Chesshyre where I was born." The west window is distinctly of Transitional period.

Near the top of the tower is a course of quatrefoil dccoration, and on the south face are the arms of the Dutton family. Its corner buttresses give it an air of strength and stability, and although rebuilt over five centuries ago it has stood the test of time and storm remarkably, showing that its builders knew the art of building in local sandstone and did it as it should be done. Nearly every stone bears its mason's mark, and up the staircase the one shown as Fig. V (page 224) occurs repeatedly, showing that one man had charge of that part entirely.

From the summit of the tower one has a magnificent view, stretching from one end of the county in the cast right away to the estuary of the Mersey in the west. Looking south-west and south, we have before us the Frodsham Hills and the Delamere Forest, with the Old Pale and Eddisbury Hill and the undulating ground between us and Beeston ; while on a clear day we get on the south-east a view of the north Shropshire hills and Mow Cop, the lower part of the Pennine Chain ; and north-east the Derbyshire hills with Shutlings Low and the Peaks beyond Macclesfield.

Whether the tower was used as a signalling station in former days we do not know, but it would certainly be used as a watch tower. I well remember being on the tower at the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and counting twenty-one beacon fires, lighted on the surrounding points as in the days of the Spanish Armada :—